About 3,000 customers across the Key Peninsula woke up without power Tuesday morning after a car crash knocked out electrical service across the Purdy and Wauna areas. Most of the outages began around 8:54 a.m., and as of Tuesday morning there was no estimate for when the lights would come back on.
Peninsula Light Company, which serves customers across the Key Peninsula, said the outages were tied directly to a wreck, according to The News Tribune. The utility reported the outage in a 9:05 a.m. post on X, saying crews were already on scene inspecting the damage. Its outage map, however, did not show an estimated restoration time as crews worked to assess the extent of the problem.
Crews Still Assessing Damage Near Purdy and Wauna
A separate, lower-confidence social media post from Peninsula Light Co. on X was dated July 28, 2025.
That older post described a car striking a pole off Lackey, which it said caused system-wide blinks and an outage impacting Key Peninsula areas. The post said a crew was en route and that updates and an estimated time of restoration would be posted once the situation had been assessed and relayed. The report notes The News Tribune has reached out to Peninsula Light Company for more information.
No details have been confirmed about who was driving, how many people were hurt, or whether anyone was cited in connection with the crash. The outage map's silence on restoration timing has left affected households with little to go on beyond assurances that crews are working the problem.
A Pattern of Pierce County Power Pole Collisions
A collision involving a power pole on westbound State Route 702 between Eatonville and Yelm forced an extended closure of the roadway between 56th Avenue South and 64th Avenue South before traffic reopened with alternating flow, per the same news organization's reporting. That crash initially knocked out power to roughly 2,700 customers in the Yelm area.
Puget Sound Energy restored power to those Yelm-area customers by about 6 a.m. on October 26, though about 250 customers in nearby Roy remained without power as restoration work continued, with service expected back by 5 p.m. that day. Puget Sound Energy spokesperson Gerald Tracy said crews had to turn off power in different directions while repairing the damaged equipment, calling it a necessary safety step during the repair process.
Whether Tuesday's Key Peninsula outage follows a similar timeline remains unclear, since no restoration estimate has been issued. Peninsula Light Company crews remained on scene working through the damage as residents in the Purdy and Wauna areas waited for updates.
