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Newspaper Archive of
Shelton Mason County Journal
Shelton, Washington
January 14, 2020     Shelton Mason County Journal
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January 14, 2020
 
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By Kirk Boxiéitner kbox/e/tner@masoncounty. com A collision between a pickup truck and a logging truck on US. Highway 101 in Purdy Canyon kicked off the early morning hours of Jan. 8, engaging agencies that included the Mason County Sheriff’s Office, Mason Coun- ty Public Utility District 1, the Washington State Patrol and the state Department of Transportation. The WSP reported that shortly before 5 a.m. on Jan. 8, a 2002 Chevrolet Silverado pickup driven by 38-year-old Hoodsport resident Dustin R. Tobey and a 1997 Ken- worth logging truck driven by 32-year-old Rochester resi— dent Robert A. Whalen were northbound on US. 101 when Tobey’s pickup left the read to the left, rolled over and came to rest in the northbound lane of US. 101 on its roof. Whalen’s logging truck then struck Tobey’s pickup, ‘and both vehicles ended up in the northbound ditch of U.S. 101. Whalen, who had been wearing his seatbelt and was uninjured, called in the ac- cident, according to a WSP news release. It was unknown at the time whether drugs or alco- hol were involved, according to the WSP. The news release added that Tobey, whom in- vestigators were unsure had Thursday, Jan. 14, 2021 Shelton-Mason County Journal — Page A—13 Truck collision, downed lines block U.S. 101 worn his seatbelt, was air— lifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. Because US. 101 was blocked in both directions, MACECOM 911 and the Ma- son County Sheriffs Office informed the public of detour routes. Southbound traffic from Hoodsport was re-rout— ed onto Purdy Cutoff Road, through state Route 106 and East McReavy and Brockdale roads, back onto US. 101, and with northbound traf- fic. from Shelton doing the opposite. WSP spokesperson Chel- sea Hodgson tweeted that WSP troopers were on site to investigate, while WSDOT handled the detours around the collision, which the WS- DOT Tacoma Twitter account announced was cleared short— ly before 9:30 a.m. During the same 41/2-hour stretch when US. 101 was closed in Purdy Canyon, the Sheriff’s Office and the WSP were called to a downed pow- er line blocking the intersec- tion of US. 101 and state Route 119 in Hoodsport. Mason County PUD 1 took to its social media chan- nels to report a power outage shortly before 6:30 a.m., ex- tending from Hoodsport “up past Eldon,” with the Mason County Sheriff’s Office Face- book page reporting the pow— er lines were cleared from the roadway shortly after 8 a.m., after which the PUD 1 so- cial media were able to post, shortly before 10 a.m., “Pow— er restored!” v According to the PUD 1 Twitter account, one reason it took a while to fully restore power was due to cold-load- ing issues, which forced its crews to “do some switching, to bring one of the phases on from a different direction,” even as the PUD tweeted to its customers to conserve their power use, once the power came back on. “Not a bad idea to flip your breakers off to expensive ap- pliances and equipment un~ til you’re back on,” the PUD tweeted. “It protects them from power fluctuations.” PUDs respond to floods, mudslides during hectic week By Kirk Boxleither kbox/e/tner@masoncounty.com The first weekendof 2021 saw Ma— son County Public Works respond to flooding and mudslides While the county’s public utility districts braved the elements to respond to several power outages. , ' Darin Hall, director of operations for Mason County PUD 1, and Lynn Eaton, communications and govern- ment relations manager for Mason PUD 3, talked with the Shelton-Mason County Journal. about the difference in how flooding affects their respective agencies. Eaton noted that PUD 3 mostly copes with landslides on the north and south shores of Hood Canal and 9c- casional flooding near Schafer State Park. Hall, meanwhile, said he is accus- tomed to dealing with overflows of the Skokomish River and its effects on US. Highway 101. “I feel like this fairly sustained lev- el of flooding is a little bit above what we tend to see this early in January,” Hall said. “Of course, the people who live in this area are used to it, because whenever the news reports flooding in Washington state, the Skokom- ish River is usually the first one they mention.” Hall described Jan. 2 as a “pret- ty busy weekend” for PUD 1, whose creWs pulled shifts lasting as long as 16 hours, dealing with a downed pow- er pole on US. 101 at the Skokomish River Bridge. ' . That same Saturday saw PUD 3 crews restoring a succession of outages of their own. Hall said PUD 1 crews had to con— sider how closures of US. 101 and Skokomish Valley Road, caused by flooding and mudslides, might affect their ability to respond to reported out- ages Jan. 2 and Jan. 3. Both public utility districts charac- terized Mason County Public Works, from its road crews to its maintenance workers, as symbiotic partners with the PUDs’ own emergency response outage prevention efforts. Eaton additionally cited the “good relationships” between PUD 3 and tim- ber companies with affording the PUD access to logging roads, when environ- mental circumstances stand in the way of the PUD’s repair and restoration personnel. Eaton and Hall said their PUDs have identified what Hall deemed “the trouble areas” within their coverage zones. While PUD 3 deals less directly with flooding, Eaton pointed out that enough ground saturation and Wind can lead to damage to their power poles and lines as trees become uprooted. Eaton and Hall touted the work done over the years to “strategically mitigate” a number of risks to their. power poles. That work involves pre- emptively trimming tree limbs and pa- trolling lines in heavily forested areas to determine the exact locations Where the power has gone down. The PUDs also considering moving certain power poles to less endangered, more acces— sible areas. Over the years, Hall has learned to factor “the trouble areas” into strategic plans and budgets for PUD 1, whether by moving lines or even putting them under ground when possible. Given that simply trimming the trees near the power lines is a five-to- seven-year cycle for PUD 1, Hall said the PUD addresses “trouble areas” as . it’s able, money and staffing permit- ting, and as various of those “trouble areas” become more pressing concerns, each year. . PUD 1 conducts “system audits” to determine those priorities, Hall said, in addition to pursuing outside funding to cover the costs of such work, most often in the form of mitigation grants from the Federal Emergency Manage- ment Agency. Hall credited the PUD’s multiple substations with allowing its crews to depower certain lines Without in- terrupting its customers’ power and pledged the PUD would remain vigi- lant in providing prompt updates on power outages and restoration efforts on its social media accounts. Mason PUD 3 has similar practices to Mason County PUD 1 in its mitiga- tion, tree-trimming cycles and substa— tion-switching abilities, Eaton said. Hall and Eaton reiterated some safety basics, urging people not to approach downed power lines (but do call them in to their PUD and 911), and advising them against approaching the crews that arrive on scene so as not to dis- tract them while they’re performing potentially dangerous work. “Call our offices, or follow us online for updates,” Eaton said. “Do bear in mind, though, that while we immedi— ately know when power has gone out in a given area, it can take time to track down the specific source of an outage.” Eaton and Hall warned customers against overloading the PUDs with “cold load pickups,” by having all their appliances turned on and plugged in when PUD crews attempt to restore power. “Rather than forcing the grid to pick all those power demands back up after an outage, wait 20 or 30 minutes after power is restored before turning your heat on again,” Hall said. ‘ Outages from” Belfair to Lake Limerick Both Mason County public utility districts were kept on their toes by power outages Jan. 5, all while the Mason County Sheriffs Office con- tinued to advise the public of road closures. On the evening of Jan. 4, Mason PUD 3 reported it needed to conduct an emergency overnight power outage overnight for Belfair for four hours on Jan. 5. “This afternoon, we became aware of a severely deteriorated cross-arm on a pole near the QFC in downtown Belfair,” the PUD 3 Facebook post stated. “Due to the reliability and public safety risk, linemen needed to make repairs immediately, and will need to take customers and business- es in the downtown area out of pow— er from approximately midnight to 4 a.m. to complete the work safely.” The PUD 3 Facebook page credit- ed the PUD’s engineering team with reducing the number of customers af- fected by rerouting power from an ad— jacent substation, but it warned many customers would be affected, includ- ing much of downtown Belfair, por— tions of state Route 3 north of Belfair, Log Yard Road, Riverhill, Mahonia, Newkirk and surrounding roads. By 4:30 a.m. on Jan. 5, Belfair had been restored, but PUD 3 wasn’t done for the day. The PUD announced an outage on Old Lyme Road, near Lake Limerick, affecting slightly more than 100 customers. Linemen were dis- patched, around 10 a.m., to investi— gate the cause and make repairs. Within minutes, PUD 3 announced workers had arrived and determined that trees were cut and fell into lines at the 200 block of Old Lyme Road, for which they needed to take additional customers out of power in order to safely make repairs, which they esti- mated would take half an hour. Mason County PUD 1 updated the public on its social media accounts of its own power outage due to downed trees on Jan. 5, at the end of the PUD’s- line on Mount Walker. It took about two hours from the time crews were dispatched to the area, shortly after 12:30 p.m., to the time power was re- stored shortly before 2:30 pm. According to PUD, its crews found a tree down and in the lines at milepost 302, blocking the northbound lane of US. 101, shortly after 1:30 pm. Meanwhile, the Mason County Sheriff s Office announced Jan. 5 that the Skokomish Valley Road was flooded at milepost 2, and advised the public to “use caution or alternative - routes.” The Sheriffs Office Facebook page would followed on Jan. 6 by announc- ing that the Skokomish Valley Road would remain closed between US. 101 and Eells Hill Road until the morn- ing of Jan. 7, but the portion between Eells Hill Road and Upper Vance Creek vicinity would reopen on the af- ternoon of Jan. 6. Storm: Wind topples trees, Skokomish floods again continued from page A—1 Mason County PUD No. 1 reported, via its on- line accounts, that it had lines down in multiple lo- cations and that Bonneville Power Administration high—voltage transmission lines were also down. “This storm hit us hard on the coast and the west side overnight,” John Lahti, BPA transmission field services vice president, wrote in a- Wednesday mom- ing news release. “Our crews are working to assess the damage, and repair lines as quickly and safely as encing outages.” possible to restore power to our customers experi- In addition to power outages, rain from the storm also caused havoc on county roads and rivers. Preliminary flood gauge data from the Skokom- ish River provided by the NWS’s Advanced Hydro- logic Prediction Service showed the river reached 17.81 feet at 5:15 a.m. Wednesday at a measuring station near the US. Highway 101'bridge over the river. If confirmed, that would be the fifth-highest level recorded on the river, slightly higher than the 17.77-foot crest recorded on Jan. 24, 2020. A river depth of 16.5 feet is considered flood stage. . A landslide also occurred late Tuesday on US. 101 north of Lilliwaup, partially blocking the high- way. Troopers made a suspected DUI arrest at the scene after a driver tried to bypass the roadblock, ac- cording to Trooper Chelsea Hodgson, a Washington State Patrol spokesperson. . Another water-related closure occurred just after midnight on state Route 302 near Victor Road east of Allyn due to a sinkhole in the road.