Continuous updates: West Seattle power outage, other wind woes

(scroll down/refresh for the latest, we are adding updates and pix to the bottom of this post)

admiralsafeway.jpg

(added 9:35 pm: photo of Admiral Safeway service station, which is dark though the nearby store is not)
ORIGINAL REPORT: Just collecting info on this – Seattle City Light has very broad boundaries for what it describes as an “Alki outage,” while e-mail we’ve received describes it as North Admiral. More to come. 9:10 PM UPDATE: City Light says this is one of several outages affecting more than 10,000 homes and businesses in different areas of the city – here’s an excerpt from a news release received minutes ago:

Seattle City Light repair crews were responding to several scattered power outages throughout the utility’s service territory … after steady winds approached 35 mph.

By 8:30 p.m. about 12,000 customers were affected by the outages in Tukwila, unincorporated King County, Alki Beach and the Sacajawea neighborhood of northeast Seattle.

The specific causes of the outages were not immediately known. Until crews discovered the cause, it was impossible to provide an estimate for when power might be restored. Additional crews were being called in to
help restore power.

A WSB team member is heading north to report back on who’s out and who’s not; we’ll also be checking with City Light for progress reports. 9:20 PM UPDATE: We’re collecting weather links too. Here’s the hourly observations from the National Weather Service — “K91S” is Alki Point, with 34 mph sustained at 9 pm. Thanks to Lou for including this live weather link from Our Lady of Guadalupe (near High Point) in comments. 9:22 PM UPDATE: On California, the outage starts north of Admiral Safeway (which has power), and continues north to Walker (map). We’re checking east and west boundaries – stand by — to the east, Jack in the Box is dark; more to come. 9:27 PM UPDATE: Power is out along Admiral all the way downhill to The Bridge, according to our roving reporter, who is now heading west on Admiral to see how far it stretches toward Alki/Beach Drive. Keep the updates coming in comments – where Pete has reported downed-tree trouble in Pigeon Point – thanks! 9:33 PM UPDATE: On the west side, the outage ends at about 45th SW/Admiral – if you know of any pockets west of there that are out, please post a comment or e-mail us. Note that in the outage zone, businesses that are out include Metropolitan Market and the Admiral Theater. 9:43 PM UPDATE: Avalon is out of power too – up to Genesee (map). That includes the Luna Park Cafe area. 9:50 PM UPDATE: North of Fauntleroy on 35th, power is out on the east side of 35th (and downhill from there), but the west side seems OK. 9:55 PM UPDATE: City Light has put up its webpage with outage info – but the West Seattle boundaries are the same ones listed in the news release which are not the same ones we’ve verified (it mentions Alki Ave but we’re told Alki is OK, for example); it says almost 3,000 homes/businesses are out in West Seattle. Still no estimate on restoring power. 10:03 PM UPDATE: This photo just in from Elena Daly (thank you!), who photographed the seawall wave action at Constellation Park south of Alki Point about an hour ago:

constellation.jpg

10:12 PM UPDATE: City Light outage hotline has an update of sorts on the West Seattle situation – but there’s no new info – just “no known cause and no known time for restoration.” 10:27 PM UPDATE: Just uploaded this video from Admiral – camera sat on the dash as we drove from the outage zone (alley by Admiral Library, past Metropolitan Market, toward Admiral Safeway gas station) and into the not-out zone (Admiral Safeway itself):

11:04 PM UPDATE: City Light just sent another update but there are no West Seattle specifics; the utility reiterates that it’s called in extra crews and will work through the night as needed. We will continue checking for updates and will also head back out in a bit to see if anyone’s gotten power back in affected West Seattle areas yet. 11:37 PM UPDATE: No new outage info, but the “forecast discussion” promises things will calm down overnight. 12:06 AM UPDATE: Comments probably beat us to this report, but we’re just back from a quick spin through the FORMERLY blacked-out zone, and looks like everyone’s back on.

26 Replies to "Continuous updates: West Seattle power outage, other wind woes"

  • Shorty June 9, 2008 (9:11 pm)

    All is dark at 39th and Lander

  • beachdrivegirl June 9, 2008 (9:14 pm)

    I literally was at the stop light at Admiral and California when this happened. Although it was still light when it went out boy oh boy was it strange to see it go “black”….

  • Lou June 9, 2008 (9:17 pm)

    Wind gusts up to 43 mph at Our Lady of Guadalupe!

    http://web.live.weatherbug.com/LiveObservations/2/BroadcasterObservations.aspx?zcode=Z6408&stat=STLGL&lid=DOM

    Glad I picked up firewood the other day – nice having a fire in Junuary!

  • Pete June 9, 2008 (9:19 pm)

    Just left from a meeting at Cooper Elementary School and there are a couple of trees blown over and one of them is a pretty big tree that’s root system has torn up a big section of the fence that boders the east side of the parking lot.

  • Gina June 9, 2008 (9:23 pm)

    Just got off the bus, looks like Met Market, 7-11, Jack in the Box are all dark. Lafayette school has lights, the cleaners on the corner of Admiral and California does not. The Bank of America on 44th is dark, the apartments across the street have lights on.

  • Ahmed June 9, 2008 (9:25 pm)

    Damn wind kept blowing over my tomatoes and hurt my lettuce :(

  • Sarah June 9, 2008 (9:27 pm)

    No power along Avalon north of Genesee. Not sure what the eastern boundary of the outage is, but both sides of Avalon are out. Had to venture out in search of free wi-fi to wrap up some homework, and it’s still incredibly blustery up at the Junction!

  • JayDee June 9, 2008 (9:31 pm)

    This is karmic payback the Admiral ‘hood owes Alki and points south from the Dec. 06 windstorm. If I recall correctly, the mayor lives in Admiral, which I found suspicious when his ‘hood had power and we didn’t.

    Power was out along Admiral from Olga to the street west of BofA and 7-11.

    And at least it is above freezing, and I seriously doubt Admiral (or even “Admiral Janeway”) will go without power for 36 hours.

  • LyndaB June 9, 2008 (9:33 pm)

    It’s kind of died down here on 35th and Juneau, but I may be speaking out of turn. Go ahead, Mother Nature. I just want the weekend to be nice!

  • Erik June 9, 2008 (9:39 pm)

    We’re out at Palm and California, our neighbors are not, so we’re borrowing internet. Thanks David!

  • WSB June 9, 2008 (9:40 pm)

    If anyone is outside WS and wondering, btw, here at WSB HQ in Upper Fauntleroy, it’s blustery but (knock wood) the power is still on – with flickers. Thank heavens we just got a new laptop with a 4-hr battery so we can go mobile if we have to – thanks again to everyone for keeping the info coming in – Patrick is the roving reporter up in Admiral getting a closer look at what’s going on — TR

  • JumboJim June 9, 2008 (9:42 pm)

    Its been heck this year trying to keep the wind from shredding our veggies to pieces. We’re west of 35th, near Thistle, and the wind roaring up from the sound makes growing a garden a serious challenge in the exposed front yard.

    I have been re-learning the months of the year recently (Mayvember and Juneuary), so what is next month? Will we have a July (*pretty please*) or will we have to make a new month like Julyber…

  • aaron hobson June 9, 2008 (10:00 pm)

    does anyone know if west seattle thrifway has power on morgen

  • WSB June 9, 2008 (10:01 pm)

    yes, no problems down this way right now as far as we know. our roving person will be heading back this way shortly (checking out Pigeon Point trees right now) so if anything has changed we will know in a bit – if someone else can’t verify sooner – TR

  • Shorty June 9, 2008 (10:08 pm)

    Has anyone spotted a repair crew yet? We are running out of camp songs and I’ve filled up on smores.

  • zs June 9, 2008 (10:10 pm)

    our comcast cable is down (but power is up). Anyone else?

  • elizabeth June 9, 2008 (10:37 pm)

    I live by starbucks on admiral and our entire building is pitch black, sort of scary but we are making the most of it with candles and a blackberry!

  • Rick June 9, 2008 (10:49 pm)

    Take the time to enjoy the dark. It’s kinda cool!

  • Erik June 9, 2008 (11:44 pm)

    And we’re back!

  • Jan June 9, 2008 (11:55 pm)

    yep…power back on at 11:40pm…3 hours and 20 minutes of romantic candlelight…spent alone – lol…

    funny, Erik…Charla’s between you and me, and they were fine…go figure…

    and had to eat the ice cream…oh, well…

  • Jan June 9, 2008 (11:57 pm)

    or is this a different Erik? lol…

  • WSB June 10, 2008 (12:08 am)

    You can thank us for that, we left the house at about 11:39 to go have a look :) so figures that as we just posted, we saw everyone was back on. Thanks for the updates, everybody. Now we’re back to catching up on the four to five other things we WERE planning to report tonight … most of which can/will wait till morning …

  • Erik June 10, 2008 (12:28 am)

    Jan – I never lost power down here.

  • JanS June 10, 2008 (12:53 am)

    aha…different Erik, arrggghhh, there’s two of you….lol

  • Admiral Janeway June 10, 2008 (7:00 am)

    My neighborhood went dark around 9:00 last night. I think we were powerless for a couple hours.

  • austin June 10, 2008 (8:58 am)

    Terribly exciting! We lose power more often than my parents out in the woods of unincorporated thurston county. Thank goodness for laptop batteries.

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