Advertisement

News

1 dead after ‘bomb cyclone’ knocks out power to half a million homes across northwest U.S.

Falling trees struck homes and littered roads across northwest Washington.

SEATTLE — A major storm swept across the northwest U.S., battering the region with strong winds and rain, causing widespread power outages and downing trees that killed at least one person.

The Weather Prediction Center issued excessive rainfall risks through Friday and hurricane-force wind warnings were in effect as the strongest atmospheric river — a large plume of moisture — that California and the Pacific Northwest has seen this season overwhelmed the region. The storm system that hit starting Tuesday is considered a " bomb cyclone," which occurs when a cyclone intensifies rapidly.

Falling trees struck homes and littered roads across northwest Washington. In Lynnwood, Washington, a woman died Tuesday night when a large tree fell on a homeless encampment, South County Fire said in a statement on X. In Seattle, a tree fell onto a vehicle, temporarily trapping a person inside, the Seattle Fire Department reported. The agency later said the individual was in stable condition.

Advertisement
Breaking News

Get the latest breaking news from North Texas and beyond.

Or with:

A 70-year-old tree fell on Wendy Harrington’s home in Issaquah, Washington, and she told KOMO-TV that she thought a whole wall was coming down.

“It felt explosive, like there was a bomb going off,” Harrington said. “Everything was just very loud.”

Advertisement

Early Wednesday, over 600,000 houses in Washington State were reported to be without power on poweroutage.us. But the number of outage reports had fluctuated wildly Tuesday evening likely due in part to several weather and utility agencies struggling to report information on the storm because of internet outages and other technical problems.

It wasn’t clear if that figure was accurate. More than 8,000 were without power in Oregon and more than 24,000 had no power in California as of Wednesday morning.

“Trees are coming down all over the city & falling onto homes,” the fire department in Bellevue, about 10 miles east of Seattle, posted on the social platform X. “If you can, go to the lowest floor and stay away from windows. Do not go outside if you can avoid it.”

Advertisement

As of 8 p.m., the peak wind speed was in Canadian waters, where gusts of 101 mph were reported off the coast of Vancouver Island, according to the National Weather Service in Seattle. Along the Oregon coast, there were wind gusts as high at 79 mph Tuesday evening, according to the National Weather Service in Medford, Oregon, while wind speed of 77 mph was recorded at Mount Rainier in Washington.

The National Weather Service warned people on the West Coast about the danger of trees during high winds, posting on X, “Stay safe by avoiding exterior rooms and windows and by using caution when driving.”

In northern California, flood and high wind watches were in effect, with up to 8 inches of rain predicted for parts of the San Francisco Bay Area, North Coast and Sacramento Valley. Dangerous flash flooding, rock slides and debris flows were expected, according to the National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center.

A winter storm watch was issued for the northern Sierra Nevada above 3,500 feet, where 15 inches of snow was possible over two days. Wind gusts could top 75 mph in mountain areas, forecasters said.

The National Weather Service issued a flood watch for parts of southwestern Oregon through Friday evening, while rough winds and seas halted a ferry route in northwestern Washington between Port Townsend and Coupeville.

A blizzard warning was issued for the majority of the Cascades in Washington, including Mount Rainier National Park, starting Tuesday afternoon, with up to a foot of snow and wind gusts up to 60 mph, according to the weather service in Seattle. Travel across passes could be difficult if not impossible.

Advertisement

By HALLIE GOLDEN and LISA BAUMANN with The Associated Press

Related Stories
Read More
Camelia Rojas bundles up against the cold as she walks from the parking lot into Buc-ee's on...
When will Dallas-Fort Worth get its first freeze this fall?
A cold front is moving in, but it’s not quite time to break out the winter gear.
A new volcanic eruption that started on the Reykjanes Peninsula in Iceland, Wednesday,...
Watch: Volcano on Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula erupts for the 7th time in a year
The eruption on the Reykjanes Peninsula started with little warning at 11:14 p.m. Wednesday and created a fissure around 1.8 miles long.
A group of people jog along White Rock Lake Trial at White Rock Lake in Dallas, Saturday,...
Is the chill in the air here to stay this week in Dallas? Probably only until the weekend
A warming trend will return to the region and could last through Thanksgiving.
Ice covers plants and the sidewalk at the intersection of Lemmon Ave and McKinney Ave on...
What were the 5 coldest days in North Texas?
Weather extremes: A look into the extreme temperatures in Dallas-Fort Worth in modern history