6 Dead As Windstorm Slams Northwest

(CBS/AP)  The worst windstorm in more than a decade tore through the northwestern U.S., leaving more than a million people without power and killing at least six.

Winds gusted to a record 69 mph about 1 a.m. Friday at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, breaking the old mark of 65 mph set in 1993. Winds were clocked at 90 mph near Westport, on the coast.

Power was knocked out at one of the airport's concourses until late Friday morning. Dozens of flights were canceled, including all American Airlines service through the morning hours. Flights were also canceled at Portland International Airport in Oregon, and Amtrak passenger train service was canceled between Seattle and Portland after downed trees and mudslides blocked the tracks.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer went unpublished for the first time since a 1936 labor strike, because electricity was knocked out at its printing press, managing editor David McCumber said. The Seattle Times, which shares the press, had only about 13,000 copies available Friday morning. Late Friday, a Times' spokeswoman said Saturday editions of both papers would be printed and delivered.

Seattle public schools were closed Friday, as were numerous smaller school systems.

A 41-year-old Seattle woman died Thursday after she became trapped in her basement while it flooded. Neighbors had called for help after they heard screaming.

"There was water completely filling the basement — 100 percent, all the way up the stairs," a neighbor told CBS News.

A 28-year-old man was killed while he slept when the top of a tree snapped off and crashed into his home in a trailer park in McCleary, 18 miles west of Olympia.

Elsewhere in Washington state, two people died in traffic accidents involving windblown trees.

And on the Oregon coast, an elderly couple died in a house fire caused by candles they were using during a power outage.

Puget Sound Energy, Washington's largest private utility, had 700,000 customers without power on Friday. Some will not have their lights back on for days, spokesman Roger Thompson said.In Oregon, about 350,000 customers lost power, and repairs to restore all of them could stretch into next week, utility officials said.

It was the most intense storm to hit the region since a storm on Jan. 20, 1993 that killed five people and caused about $130 million in damage, said Clifford F. Mass, a University of Washington atmospheric sciences professor.

[picklesandja]

I am in Seattle. It was a very rough night. I am used to earthquakes here and there. They shake the building for a few seconds and then it's over. Last night's wind was worst than the 6.2 earthquake a few years ago. It shook my apartment building all night long. I thought something was going to fly through the window.

-Lydia

[flolake]

Soon, the Pacific Northwest will begin to get a taste of higher insurance premiums. Those of us from the Carolina's to the Keys are already being dumped or bled by those same companies...