High Wind in Southwest Interior, Washington

A roof was ripped off an apartment building in Centralia. In Lewis county more than 12 homes were seriously damaged or destroyed.

A strong Pacific Ocean rain and wind storm struck Washington on the night of Dec 14th through the morning of the 15th. The storm initially brought one to two inches of heavy rainfall to parts of western Washington on the 14th, producing areas of urban and small stream flooding and overwhelming drainage systems. Widespread strong damaging winds followed, impacting the entire state as the storm center tracked from well off the coast east across the region near the British Columbia border.

In western Washington, peak winds reached 80 to 90 mph along the coast and elsewhere 60 to 75 mph. A few locations had gusts as high 85 mph in the interior. Mountain areas recorded peak wind speeds reached in excess of 100 mph, including 113 mph at Chinook Pass and 100 mph at Sunrise in Mt Rainier National Park.

The wind storm, the strongest since the 1993 Inauguration Day Wind Storm, blew down thousands of trees and knocked power out to close to 1.5 million customers in western Washington. The strong winds damaged major transmission lines, power poles and other power utility infrastructure. Trees also fell onto houses, street signs, street lights, parked cars, fences, railings and rooftops.

There were four fatalities as a direct result of the storm and eleven indirect fatalities following the storm from carbon monoxide poisoning, encountering downed power lines and a candle started house fire. Three people in western Washington were killed by fallen trees and one person drowned in Seattle when their basement filled with rain runoff. Eight of the indirect fatalities were from carbon monoxide poisoning and another 275 people were treated from the poisoning in King county alone. Two people were electrocuted by downed power lines and one man died after his home burned apparently started by a candle used for light. 36 people were directly injured by the wind storm.