Eighteen people were killed, most of whom died of carbon monoxide poisoning in the days following the storm because of improper use of barbecue cookers and generators indoors.

[2] The storm left extensive devastation across Washington, especially tree damage, which knocked down numerous power lines.

[4] The electricity grid was hit very hard, as about 1.2 million customers lost power in the state, and Puget Sound Energy reported that more than 75 percent of its circuits were damaged.

[5] In the Seattle area, hundreds of thousands of families still remained without power several days after the storm, and many had to leave their homes and move into hotels or emergency shelters coping with the inclement weather.

[6][7] Major employers in the area were affected; the power outage forced Microsoft to shut down large portions of its campus in Redmond on December 15.

One of them was 41-year-old voice actress Kate Fleming (aka Anna Fields) who was trapped in a flooded basement in Seattle's Madison Valley.

[11] Alejandro Nava-Solis of Kirkland, Juan Figueroa-Gomez of Renton, and Shah Fazli of Kenmore were also among the carbon monoxide deaths.

As a result of a power outage at a printing plant in Bothell, the Seattle Times was only able to publish 13,000 copies of its Friday edition.

Combined with several days of snow and ice later in the month, and continuing rain throughout the first half of December 2006, the ground in the Puget Sound region was extremely waterlogged and loose.

Additionally, large portions of the planted trees in the Seattle metropolitan area were at the end of their lifespan, being some 60 to 70 years of age or more.

The result of these factors was that many thousands of large, old trees easily uprooted and tipped over, frequently with tons of mud captured in their roots, and crashed into homes and power lines.

The flooding which lead to the death of Fleming was investigated by Denver-based engineering firm CH2M Hill on behalf of the City of Seattle.

In its report, released in April 2007, investigators identified several factors, including an unprecedented and unanticipated amount of rainfall, the failure of a nearby retaining wall, and the inadequate design of the drainage system around Fleming's home.

[3] In addition to the wind, record-breaking rainfall fell in Seattle with nearly an inch in a one-hour period the afternoon of December 14.