A major storm swept across the northwest U.S. Tuesday evening, battering the region with strong winds and rain and causing widespread power outages and downed 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 overwhelms the region. The storm system is considered a " bomb cyclone ," which occurs when a cyclone intensifies rapidly.
Downed 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.
"Trees are coming down all over the city falling onto homes," the fire department in Bellevue, about 10 miles 16 kilometers 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."
Late Tuesday, at least 450,000 houses were reported to be without power on poweroutage.us . But the number of outage reports fluctuated wildly throughout the 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 15,000 had lost power in Oregon and nearly 19,000 in California.
