Not only did the recent winter weather dump heavy snow across Jefferson County, it also dropped $500,000 in damages on the Jefferson County Public Utility District.

After a string of bad weather caused multiple power outages from Jan. 1 to Jan. 8, the power company was stretched thin attempting to fix its infrastructure over the past few weeks.

According to Kevin Streett, PUD general manager, the utility company is facing roughly half a million dollars in expenses to repair storm damage, hire laborers to work around the clock, and get power back online.

The biggest issue was restoring power lines. After the initial blanket of snow, subsequent thawing, and eventual new blanket of fresh powder, many small trees and heavy branches collapsed onto power lines and knocked out power as a result.

“We had that week of snow, then it warmed up and came to heavy snow,” said Will O’Donnell, PUD spokesman. “We didn’t have many poles down. Maybe a handful; less than a dozen.”

Although a multitude of power lines and a handful of utility poles were down, much of the financial cost came from the PUD’s need to hire workers to clear large quantities of tree debris from the cables along roadways, mostly on US Highway 101, for around a week.

“The biggest cost for us was the extra contracting,” O’Donnell said. “We had to hire crews with snow plows.”

Laborers worked around the clock to get power restored.

In order to rest workers properly, the utility district had them operate in rotations throughout the week, O’Donnell said.

“We worked 24/7 to get everybody back on,” he said.

From New Year’s Day to Jan. 8, crews worked to remove debris, plowed through snow, and reassembled power lines. The task would’ve been simpler if the PUD could’ve assessed the damage from afar, but the snowfall prevented the utility company from obtaining full damage reports from a distance.

“Part of the difficulty was that we couldn’t tab all the damage because we couldn’t access it,” O’Donnell said. “We didn’t have tabulation of how many lines were down.”

The Toandos Peninsula was hit hardest by the power outages, followed by Brinnon. Coyle, located on the Toandos Peninsula, was without any power for close to a week as the power company’s staff attempted to bring electricity back.

“That damage was most concentrated on the Toandos Peninsula,” O’Donnell said. “Coyle got hit the worst. Some folks were out of power for six days.”

After close to a week of nonstop efforts, power was finally restored to Toandos Peninsula customers the morning of Jan. 8.

“We really appreciate the community down in Coyle who were very understanding and great to work with. They were all in it together and we appreciate them,” O’Donnell said.

Brinnon’s situation was very similar as many residents were, quite literally, powerless as snow continued to pile up and falling tree branches cut electricity off for customers starting Jan. 2.

“My power was off Sunday evening for 56 hours,” Brinnon resident Anna Maria Wolf told The Leader. “I was back to the pioneer days and was very grateful to have a wood-burning stove and be prepared with a camping stove and bottled water.”

“This devastating snow storm in Brinnon was certainly a historic event filled with damages to properties, hundreds of folks stranded without power, water, food, or fuel for days on end,” added Jessica Isabella of Brinnon.

“The thing that really is mind-blowing is the overflowing amount of loving kindness that was demonstrated each day by our entire community coming together and helping struggling neighbors out,” Isabella added.

Mason County PUD No. 1 cooperated with Jefferson County PUD to help get power restored.

“They provided power to Brinnon, from Mount Walker to Brinnon,” O’Donnell said.

After all power was restored to Olympic Peninsula homes, and when the snow finally cleared, the utility district could take a breather.

The combination of snow, heavy winds, and tough weather was a “twice in a century cold event,” O’Donnell said.

Looking forward, the power company is looking into ways to prevent a similar situation from happening again. While there’s nothing they can do about the weather, the utility district is considering ways to make transportation, remote damage reports, and power restoration faster and easier in the future.

The challenges of the power outages was “really a big eye-opener,” O’Donnell said.

Jefferson County’s unique challenge when it comes to providing power is the sheer number of tall trees throughout the county.

“The hardest thing is we live in heavily forested community,“ O’Donnell said. “Trees coming down is one source of power outages. We’ve been upping our tree-trimming efforts the last few years, trying to remove potential [hazardous] trees.”

The PUD has also considered moving power lines underground to prevent fallen trees and branches from clashing with lines, but the process is expensive and very time-consuming, he added.