North Bend Neighborhood Hit by ‘Tornado-like’ Winds; Trees Down, Power Out to Thousands

Neighborhoods in the North Bend area were rocked by damaging winds in the early hours of Wednesday, December 9, 2015. According to residents, the Riverbend area near I-90 exit 32 looked like a “war zone” at first light.

Resident Stephanie Sprouse said “tornado-like winds” came through the Rattlesnake Ridge/Lake area around 3:30AM, causing a power pole to snap, power lines to break, trampolines flying over multiple fences into neighbors yards across the street and large pine trees to uproot.

Sprouse said luckily no one was hurt. One of the trees did go onto a home, though.  The winds that came through were described as being similar to the ice storm winds from January 2012.

PSE crews were on the scene in Riverbend by 9AM to start repairs.

PSE reported over 5,000 customers were without power in the North Bend area as of noon, including the downtown North Bend business area. Some stores were running with generators – Bartell’s, Safeway – other businesses were closed.

Residents and businesses owners reported that the power came back on in the downtown area and Wilderness Rim around 1PM.  Riverbend was still out as of 2PM.

PSE stated that as of 10:45AM they had about 45,000 customers without power. Roads closed due to flooding were making it more difficult for crews to get into some affected areas.  PSE said it was also using helicopters to patrol damaged areas such as transmission lines that are not easily accessible.

This story will be updated as more information becomes available.