A deadly storm that swept across the Pacific Northwest on Thursday, and a subsequent power outage, forced Microsoft to shut down large parts of its Redmond campus on Friday, a company spokesman told vnunet.com. 

Between one and 1.5 million residents were left without power as the storm blew over trees and took down power lines.

The power outage also shut down the printing presses for the Seattle Times and Post Intelligencer newspapers, and rail services between Seattle and Portland were suspended.

The storm raced across Oregon, Washington state and the Canadian province of British Columbia.

News reports claim that wind gusts reached speeds of more than 110mph (175kmh) and brought heavy rains.

The storm left at least three people dead, two hit by falling trees and a third drowned after she was trapped in a flooded basement.