Washington State Ferries suffers $3 million damage during a windstorm on December 17, 1990.

  • By Alan J. Stein
  • Posted 3/03/2001
  • HistoryLink.org Essay 3042
See Additional Media

On December 17, 1990, winter storms cause more than $3 million damage to the vessels and ferry terminals operated by Washington State Ferries. This is the largest amount of storm damage endured by the ferry system since the Columbus Day storm of 1962.

The brunt of the damage was to the ferry Elwha, which was in for repairs at the Port of Everett's Fisherman's Boat Shop when the storm struck. High winds bashed the ferry against the pier, destroying a wooden barrier and snapping off pilings. From there the ferry beat against a concrete pier until the car deck ended up looking like a crumpled wad of paper.

The winds began at 6 p.m., but the Elwha was not towed away from the pier by two tugs until 10 p.m. The hull was not damaged during the storm, so the vessel was never in danger of sinking.

The Vashon Island dock suffered also. Waves smashed into wing walls and dolphins (wooden structures used to guide the ferries into the dock), obliterating many of them. The passenger-only dock was put out of commission for more than a month.

Waves also destroyed one of the wing walls at the Lopez Island dock in the San Juan Islands. Until repairs were completed, only small ferries had access to the island.


Sources:

"Storm Damage Expected to Cost Ferry System About $3 Million" Seattle Post-Intelligencer January 3, 1991, pp. B1-B2.


Licensing: This essay is licensed under a Creative Commons license that encourages reproduction with attribution. Credit should be given to both HistoryLink.org and to the author, and sources must be included with any reproduction. Click the icon for more info. Please note that this Creative Commons license applies to text only, and not to images. For more information regarding individual photos or images, please contact the source noted in the image credit.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License
Major Support for HistoryLink.org Provided By: The State of Washington | Patsy Bullitt Collins | Paul G. Allen Family Foundation | Museum Of History & Industry | 4Culture (King County Lodging Tax Revenue) | City of Seattle | City of Bellevue | City of Tacoma | King County | The Peach Foundation | Microsoft Corporation, Other Public and Private Sponsors and Visitors Like You