Power restored to thousands; some must wait

The lights are back on for thousands of Puget Sound Energy customers this evening. The largest outage area, Kitsap County, saw power restored to all but 13,000. PSE expects many of them to be back online before midnight Wednesday. 

According to the latest official PSE update, Bainbridge Island and Federal Way customers had power again, save for a few hundred in harder to reach areas. About 900 Bainbridge homes could expect to have electricity by midnight, according to the update.

Still, some on the Kitsap Peninsula and on Vashon Island in southwest King County will have to wait until Thanksgiving afternoon, or perhaps evening, until crews can repair downed lines. On Vashon, about 1,200 remained without power early Wednesday evening. At the start of the day, that number was 10,000. 

In their 5 pm statement, PSE officials asked those still without power:

"...that they keep just one light switched to "on," turn down their furnaces and unplug their electronic equipment, such as computers and televisions, and other appliances such as microwave ovens. After power is restored and your light comes on, limiting your use of electricity for the first 30 minutes or so will help stabilize the electric system as it needs to warm up in this extreme cold weather. This will help us bring everyone's power back and not cause more outages."

More than 500 workers were at various outage sites Wednesday. PSE called in additional help from British Columbia, Idaho and Oregon.