On Feb. 2, Pierce County Executive Pat McCarthy signed an emergency declaration for the Anderson Island power outage, which began last Saturday.

This allows the County to utilize its resources to help the Island and facilitates the request for state assets.

Since Monday, Emergency Management employees and volunteers have been staffing the Mobile Operations Command Center stationed outside the island’s general store. Tanner Electric Company reports that a problem in the underwater transmission line from the mainland is the suspected cause of the outage.

On Tuesday, Pierce County Department of Emergency Management responded to the needs of Anderson Island residents during the potentially lengthy power outage which began last Saturday.

On Sunday evening, Emergency Management provided generators and coordinated with the City of Lakewood to provide cots for island residents who spent the night at the public safety building.

On Monday, more generators were also sent over and three target notification messages were sent to Anderson Island residents updating them on the situation. Emergency Management’s E9-1-1 Program also confirmed with CenturyTel, which provides phone service on the island, that they are maintaining the phone lines with generators.

For more information, Anderson Island residents can call (253) 884-4040.