No, it wasn’t just you. That was a fairly widespread, but brief, power interruption about 15 minutes ago. We’ve heard from people all around the peninsula who experienced it too – from Admiral in the north to at least as far south as here in Upper Fauntleroy – but we haven’t heard from anyone who lost power for more than a moment, and the Seattle City Light map shows only two 1-customer spots in North Delridge (an area where some also heard a possible transformer/fuse boom).

11:34 AM: Seattle Fire is on the scene of a reported natural-gas leak on 36th SW just north of SW Hanford. They’re calling for Seattle City Light because they’ve noted a “high-voltage transformer” relatively close to the source of the leak.

11:45 AM: Puget Sound Energy – which handles gas service in our area – is still en route.

NOON: PSE has arrived, firefighters just told dispatch.

12:10 PM: And they’ve subsequently “secured the leak.”

6:46 PM: After a bit of a lag, the Seattle City Light outage map is now showing an outage a texter says started about 6:25 pm. They heard an explosion and then lost power. The map says 15 customers are out.

7:25 PM: Our texter reports that a dead crow was found near the origin of the outage – “closed circuit and blew fuse,” they were told, along with the promise that power should be back shortly.

Two West Seattle utility notes:

MYSTERY BROWN WATER: Via text, a reader report: “Just want to report brown water to multiple homes in the Fauntlee Hills area (39th and 40th Ave SW). Called SPU. They said no fire hydrant testing in the area and are sending this to the water quality inspector to investigate.” Hydrant testing has been the most common cause of brown water – stirring up sediment (rust) in the lines – lately, but certainly isn’t the only possibility, which is why reporting it to 206-386-1800 is important, every time.

SATURDAY OUTAGE FOLLOWUP: More than 300 Seattle City Light customers, mostly on Puget Ridge, lost power for more than an hour and a half on Saturday night, as reported here. Shortly after the start of the outage, SFD responded to a “vault fire” call in the 6700 block of West Marginal Way. Today when we followed up, SCL’s Jenn Strang confirmed the two were related – the vault fire actually led to the wider outage: “We de-energized the additional 319 customers for a brief period out of an abundance of caution while SFD and City Light crews safely entered the area. SFD confirmed there was no active fire, but smoke was coming from the vault. The cause was determined to be a fuse in the underground system.”

4:32 AM: Thanks for the tips. 4,700 customers are out of power in (mostly) northwest West Seattle. More info to come ….

4:37 AM: Added above, a screengrab of the City Light map showing the outage zone. We haven’t heard an obvious cause yet. The power went out at 4:25.

4:48 AM: According to a commenter, the problem is at California/Hudson [map]. SFD and City Light are reported to be there.

5 AM: A similar footprint was affected by an outage on July 2nd – that outage was caused by a driver taking out a pole and lines at Admiral/47th/Waite – as well as another one July 24th blamed on an equipment problem (blown fuses) near 30th/Brandon. …

5:40 AM: The map now blames “equipment failure” for the outage. … Via Twitter/X, SCL verifies the “failure” happened at California/Hudson – “downed wire.”

5:43 AM: Some commenters are reporting their power’s back.

5:56 AM: The SCL map has finally updated to reflect that. 2,644 customers still out – will add the revised map, for the record, in a moment. (added) Here it is:

6:36 AM: Commenters say there’s at least a pocket around 47th/Admiral that’s still out, not shown on the map update. … That outage pocket is reported to include the 47th/Admiral signal.

6:46 AM: Thanks to Kevin Freitas, who keeps a continuous skywatching camera going, for sharing this video of how the sky lit up when the outage-triggering failure happened (a few blocks west of his residence):

Meantime, we looked further back in WSB archives. Before the three summer outages (including this one) with similar footprints but different causes, we had three other outages this year affecting thousands in West Seattle, all blamed on trees:
-1/13/23, 4,400+ out after tree came down in North Delridge
-2/3/23, 3,200+ out after tree came down (in wind) in North Delridge
-6/6/23, 3,300+ out after tree came down (in slide) on Harbor Avenue

(There were also several smaller but still notable outages affecting hundreds.)

7:10 AM: The SCL map has added back the Admiral area from which commenters were reporting “still out but not shown on map.” That brings the total out to 2,900+.

7:16 AM: Now that it’s light, our photographer went over to California/Hudson, where a City Light crew is working:

The wires/cables are by the stairway:

9:04 AM: Commenters and SCL report more restored – fewer than 300 still out.

10:47 AM: The map shows the outage entirely resolved. We’ll be following up with City Light for more specifics on the cause.

ADDED 3:49 PM: Here’s what City Light spokesperson Jenn Strang tells us:

CAUSE: The owl mentioned by commenter “Admiral” below was the actual cause, Strang says, in a chain reaction of sorts: “The owl contact outage at SW Walker St and 47th Ave SW resulted in the wire coming down at California and Hudson.”

FOOTPRINT: We asked how three outages with different causes, in different areas (though the owl at 47th/Walker is close to the 47th/Admiral/Waite crash scene at the heart of the early July outaage), wound up with pretty much the same footprint. Strang’s reply: “The footprint is similar because of how the infrastructure is laid out from that particular substation to the outlying feeders.” In some cases, she added, the footprint is affected when SCL has to de-energize an area for safe repairs, but in this case, the identical footprint was shown from the very start of the outage, long before repairs.

Thanks to Cathy for the photos. Separate from the earlier South Alki power outage, a pole has fallen and brought down wires at 64th/Beach Drive, across from Constellation Park.

No injuries, Cathy reports. Seattle City Light‘s map says this is affecting one customer.

10:04 AM: Thanks for the tips. Almost 300 customers in the South Alki area lost power about 20 minutes ago; above is a screengrab of the Seattle City Light map that shows the area affected. No official cause listed by SCL yet but Lamont, who lives in the area, reports finding a dead bird beneath a transformer.

1:30 PM: Lamont reported that power was back as of just after 1 pm, but SCL’s map hasn’t updated yet.

2:45 PM: Checked back on the map and it does now reflect that this outage has been completely resolved.

Thanks to the texter who reported brown water on Genesee Hill this afternoon, near 46th/Genesee. As always, if it happens to you, be sure to advise Seattle Public Utilities at 206-386-1800. It’s often the result of sediment in the lines stirred up by jydrat testing, but not always – sometimes it’s first word of a pipe problem in the area. (We did see firefighters opening a hydrant on the Gatewood side of SW Thistle today, not far from our HQ, but our water’s been OK.)

That’s a screengrab from a Seattle City Light map showing where it’s currently trimming back trees that are close to power lines. We received a call from a concerned reader about major trimming happening along California in South Admiral, so we checked, and learned about the map. As noted in the past, City Light’s pruning work can sometimes appear to be dramatic; this page explains the standards to which they trim to try to reduce tree/line conflicts, which are to blame for many power outages.

(Added: WSB photo)

If they have to cut a tree that’s on your property, you’re supposed to get advance notice. (And yes, there have been past problems – so contact the utility if you think a crew is going beyond the published standards.)

(WSB photo, Friday)

If you frequently pass by the Pump Station 38 project site in the 1400 block of Alki Avenue SW, you’ve likely noticed the construction isn’t complete yet, even though it was described as near completion months ago. The artwork is installed, as our photo shows, along with the new guardrail, but otherwise, cones and holes remain. Seattle Public Utilities says in an update, “The work has been delayed due to a malfunctioning pump that needed to be returned to the manufacturer for repair. At this time, the project is tentatively scheduled to be completed in September.” That’ll be five months longer than the “up to nine months” estimated when work started in July of last year.

11:51 AM: Sent by Trileigh:

I just tried to refill a bottle, and our water is running brown and cloudy. Maybe with the fresh rain a pipe is leaking somewhere? Above Lowman in the Pelly Place neighborhood.

Nothing on the Seattle Public Utilities water-outage map, so either it’s hydrant testing again or an as-yet-unaddressed problem .. always notify SPU about brown water (which is caused by unusual line activity stirring up “sediment,” mostly rust) at 206-386-1800.

11:57 AM: Just as we published that report, we got a text from someone in the Morgan Junction area saying they’re seeing it too and SPU says it’s hydrant testing.

Texter reports brown water in North Admiral. Anyone else? If you’re seeing it, be sure to report to Seattle Public Utilities at 206-386-1800 – it’s often fire-hydrant testing, but sometimes it can be first indication of a problem.

4:57 PM: Thanks for the tips. A power outage centered near Delridge/Orchard is only affecting 26 customers but at least one store – Sherwin-Williams – is among them, as is the traffic signal at that intersection.

9:40 PM: Not fixed yet, per SCL map.

1:12 AM: Just checked again; power’s back.

Thanks to the texter who reported brown water from their taps in the Morgan Junction area this afternoon. Reminder that lately it’s usually because of fire-hydrant testing, but not always, so it’s important to always report it to Seattle Public Utilities at 206-386-1800.

As covered here last night, more than 4,700 homes and businesses lost power in West Seattle last night for up to three hours. Today, Seattle City Light spokesperson Jenn Strang explains what happened: “Last night, crews determined the cause to be two wires that had become disconnected from their insulators and were laying on the cross arm at SW Brandon & 30th Avenue SW. This could have been the result of any number of factors – wind, weather, bird/animal, or environmental – but at the time last evening, we were not able to determine the exact correlation. Our staff and crews did a great job isolating the problem and restoring power to a large group in just a few hours.” This was the second sizable West Seattle outage this month; the previous one, early July 2nd, was caused by a suspected DUI driver hitting a pole and taking out lines at 47th/Admiral.

1:49 PM: Strang says on followup, “When crews were on site, they found two of three blown fuses, which is likely the cause of the outage.”