Deadly storm slams Pacific Northwest

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Deadly storm slams Pacific Northwest 
100-mph winds claim 4 lives, leave more than 1 million without power

About 1.5 million homes and businesses in Washington and Oregon had no power early Friday after howling windstorms and heavy rains caused at least four deaths, closed major bridges and sparked flooding.

The latest death was reported in McCleary, Wash., where a man was crushed by a falling tree while he slept, officials said.

Toppled trees blocked roads across the region and at least one major bridge in the Seattle area remained closed as the Friday commute began. Power outages in part of the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport forced several flights to be canceled. With winds calming but still high, public officials asked people to stay home.

About 700,000 customers of Puget Sound Energy, Washington state's largest private utility, were without power Friday morning, and about three-fourths of the circuits were down in the company's nine-county service area, spokesman Roger Thompson said.

When repair crews were sent to assess damage "they've had to pull back," Thompson said. "It's just been too hairy out there."

Some customers won't have their lights back on for days, he said.

Other outages affected about 171,000 customers in Seattle, 120,000 in the Snohomish County Public Utility District north of the city, 70,000 to 80,000 to the south in Tacoma, and 22,000 in the Grays Harbor PUD on the coast.

"If it's not the largest (outage), it's close to it," Seattle City Light spokeswoman Suzanne Hartman told NBC News affiliate KING-TV.

The windstorm was the the worst to hit the state since Jan. 20, 1993, when an Inauguration Day storm killed five people, destroyed at least 79 homes, and damaged 581 other residences. It left 750,000 customers without power and cost about $130 million in damage, according to Clifford F. Mass, an atmospheric sciences professor at the University of Washington.

In Oregon, Portland General Electric reported on Friday that power had been lost to about 245,000 of its customers — about 30 percent of its service territory. Pacific Power, which covers most of the rest of the state, reported 105,000 customers had lost electricity by Thursday night.

Woman drowns in flooded basement
In Seattle, firefighters cut a hole in the floor to pull Kathryn Fleming, 41, out of her flooded windowless basement after neighbors heard her screaming that she was trapped, but she was pronounced dead after being taken to Harborview Medical Center.

"Somehow, the door shut, and she couldn't open the door because of the water pressure," Fire Department spokeswoman Helen Fitzpatrick said.