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Man Killed By Tree In Seattle Windstorm; Toddler Spared

A man was killed on Sunday after a windstorm pushed a large pine tree onto his car. He had been driving a navy blue station wagon in the upper loop of Seward Park.

A female toddler in the car was transported to Harborview with minor injuries, according to a Seattle Fire spokeswoman.

The tree is among many trees and branches that fell in a powerful windstorm that picked up around noon in Seattle, causing outages across the region and the closing of the 520 bridge.

The 520 bridge, which connects Seattle and the Eastside, was closed in both directions because of high winds and lake water splashing onto the highway.

According to Seattle City Light, more than 41,000 customers were without power on Sunday afternoon.

Many of those outages were due to trees falling on power lines. The utility asks that people assume the power lines are electrified.

Seattle Department of Transportation reported hearing of wired down on Thorndyke Ave West near West Raye Street in Queen Anne, blocking both directions of traffic.

Downed power lines on Aurora Avenue North have closed the roadway to traffic around North 93rd Street.

Power outages were reported throughout South Seattle and in Northeast Seattle. There are scattered outages in Renton.

Metro said transit service delays were expected because of the high winds. Some bus routes could be rerouted, the agency said. Metro bus routes 255, 271 and 545 will travel via I-90 instead.

Discovery Park in Magnolia had a peak wind gust of 66 miles per hour at 4 p.m. Winds are expected to die down around 5 p.m. on Sunday, according to the National Weather Service.

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Other reports throughout the area:

  • A semi-truck tipped over on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.
  • The Port Townsend to Coupeville ferry has been canceled.
  • A roof blown off in Lake Forest Park.
  • Snohomish Public Utility District reported 7,000 people without power.
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