Strong winds whipped through the region on Wednesday, causing at least two power outages and adding to already dangerous fire conditions.
The largest outage left more than 1,000 Camas-area residents in the dark for about an hour Wednesday afternoon. The incident was caused when wind pushed trees into power lines, said Clark Public Utilities spokeswoman Erica Erland.
The utility first reported the outage just after 2 p.m., It affected a total of 1,040 customers. Crews restored power to about half of those by 3 p.m., and the rest were taken care of just after 4 p.m., Erland said.
Southwest Washington saw blustery conditions throughout the day Wednesday. At Vancouver’s Pearson Field, wind gusts often topped 30 mph, according to measurements reported by the National Weather Service in Portland. Despite the conditions, Clark Public Utilities reported only one other outage that briefly affected 442 customers in north Clark County earlier in the day, Erland said.
Forecasters expect windy conditions to continue through tonight and into Thursday, according to the weather service, with gusts again reaching 30 mph.
