In East King County, residents face snow, ice and power outages

DUVALL, Wash. -- Some spots on the Eastside have seen a foot of snow since Sunday. If that isn't bad enough, thousands have lost power in the bitter cold.

Oh, and there's more. As in, more snow is on the way.

We caught up with power crews along W. Snoqualmie Valley Road NE working on electrical lines. The weight of the snow and ice from the recent storm brought down tree limbs, knocking out power to customers in the area.

In Duvall, the Miericke-Drojahn family with two young boys lost power for several hours on Monday.

“They got it back on after a couple of hours, which meant we didn’t have to stay in the cold at night or in the dark, which we did last year. It was no fun," mother Julie Miericke said.

In East King County, there is compact snow and ice on many roadways.

Q13 News came across a car that slid off W. Snoqualmie Valley Road NE and into a ditch in knee-deep water.

It's why Susan Ferguson of Duvall ditched her car and walked where she needed to go.

“I just got a new car in December," Ferguson said. "I don’t want to wreck it before I make my first payment on it so I just stay at home.”

On Union Hill in Redmond, it’s a race to clear the snow from neighborhood streets—before the next storm hits.

Shane Green operated the bobcat used to clear the roads.

“They’re pretty icy. I mean it looks like you can see the asphalt, but there’s a lot of ice out there," he said.

For Green, as the snow mounts, so does the overtime pay.

“I love it when the snow comes," Green said. " Some people don’t, but it makes a lot of work for us. So I like it.”

It's less fun if you aren't getting paid to remove the snow. Gary Kelley, a retired Boeing worker, was busy shoveling a foot of snow from his driveway.

“Typically we stay in try to take it easy and wait a few days and then try to dig ourselves out," Kelley said with a chuckle.