(scroll/refresh for ongoing updates; see today’s earlier coverage here; for a list of handy links and closed/open reports, CLICK HERE)
There is no cheerier sighting on a day like today than The Snowplow (this one headed south on California to eastbound Thistle a short time ago). Digging, plowing, and some melting seem to be the theme of the afternoon; morning coverage is here – let the afternoon/evening coverage begin.
2:11 PM UPDATE: Some reminders: Links to the latest transit info etc. are in the open/closed/links post that we’re continuing to update elsewhere on the page. Meantime, some afternoon photos – 2 pm on Yancy east of Avalon, via Facebook (where we’re WS Blog) from Talani at Stor-More Self-Storage (WSB sponsor):
2:21 PM UPDATE: This just in: “Trenton was just plowed from Delridge eastbound.”
3:10 PM UPDATE: The latest news release from the city includes this (plus some other info about shelters and fire safety; read the entire release here) info:
City of Seattle departments entered another day of snow response by continuing to plow roads, shelter the vulnerable and ensuring homes and businesses have power. …
The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) continues 24-hour operations to plow, de-ice and sand across the city. The department’s focus remains main arterials, bridges and other elevated road structures, streets near hospitals, and bus routes.
SDOT continues to deploy its entire winter response fleet of 27 trucks on the streets. Two of those trucks have been assigned to the downtown core. Crews will move to secondary arterials as soon as conditions allow. Due to an ice-related problem with a track switch, the South Lake Union Seattle Streetcar will remain out of service until further notice.
To date, SDOT crews have used more than 6,000 tons of sand and dispersed more than 12,000 gallons of liquid de-icer. SDOT continues to advise that motorists use caution and avoid driving if possible. If motorists must drive, they are advised to reduce their speeds, transition carefully from side streets to arterials and give snowplows ample room to operate.
City Light: No major outages, disconnects suspended
Seattle City Light currently has no major outages. Over the weekend, the utility responded to a number of small outages. No more than 150 customers were without power at any one time and crews quickly restored power. Most power loss was caused by either cars hitting poles or trees falling into lines as a result of heavy snow on the branches.
The utility has sufficient crews available for any potential outages. The wind is not expected to be an issue, helping to reduce the likelihood of service interruption.
Nickels announced today that Seattle City Light has suspended disconnection notices through January 9, 2009. Any customer needing assistance in making payments on their City Light bill should contact the Call Center as soon as possible to make arrangements. Customers can call (206) 684-3000 Monday – Friday to talk with a representative.
Garbage collection
Seattle Public Utilities will collect additional garbage at no charge when weather permits the movement of heavy trucks in residential neighborhoods. When setting out extra waste, customers are encouraged to place perishable food items in their collection containers and set bagged non-perishable items next to the containers. Customers can dispose of their garbage for free at Seattle’s Recycling and Disposal Stations in South Park and Fremont. Seattle’s recycling and disposal stations are open today.
Single-family residential garbage, recycling, food and yard waste collection has been delayed Monday, Dec. 22, due to dangerous road conditions. City collection contractors will attempt to service today’s missed customers Tuesday or Wednesday, if road conditions improve. Customers missed today should leave their containers out tomorrow. If materials are not collected tomorrow, then customers should bring in their containers until next week.
Due to the Christmas holiday, Thursday and Friday customers will be delayed one day. Thursday customers will be collected Friday, Dec. 26, and Friday customers will be collected Saturday, Dec. 27. …
Keep storm drains clear
People are advised to avoid piling snow on top of storm drains when shoveling sidewalks and driveways. These drains need to be kept clear, so that when the snow melts the runoff has some place to go. As the snow starts to thaw, you can attempt to clear snow from drains when streets are clear of cars.
Protect your pipes
Seattle Public Utilities reminds residents to prepare water pipes for cold weather. Shut off outside faucets, drain the water and protect them by insulating them with rags or foam covers. Pipes in exposed or unheated areas (attics, basements and garages) should be wrapped with tape and insulating materials, available at local hardware stores. Drain and remove all outdoor hoses, and shut off and drain in-ground sprinkler systems.
Residents are also urged to protect indoor sink pipes that are against exterior walls, by opening under-sink cabinet doors, allowing heat to circulate. During severe cold, allow the faucet farthest from your front door to slowly drip cold water. Set your thermostat no lower than 55 degrees Fahrenheit, day or night (even if you are away).
If a water pipe breaks, immediately close the main shut-off valve to stop excessive flooding. If you cannot turn off the main shut-off valve, SPU customers can call (206) 386-1800 and a crew will turn off the water at the meter for a standard service charge.
Scott C adds – tending to your downspouts is vital too:
remind folks to make sure that the exits to their downspouts are clear so that they can drain. I just pushed snow off the roof over our garage and found the downspout was plugged from snow gathering in front of it, and the water melting off the roof was frozen at the end of it. This can end up with the water either breaking the downspout and or the water backing up and going under the roofing into the house. A few minutes can save lots of bucks.
Scott also sent this photo of a lethal-looking icicle coming off his roof:
Also, this just came in from Metro – the morning outlook – mostly boilerplate you’ve read before, but nonetheless, of great interest:
With travel conditions still not stabilized, King County Metro Transit will be offering approximately half of its regular weekday service on Tuesday morning, Dec. 23.
Please check the Metro Online website and click on the “adverse weather” link before you leave home to see if your bus route is operating and if it is on snow routing. Weather forecasts indicate freezing temperatures overnight could result in icy roads for the Tuesday morning commute.
Difficult driving conditions and ten straight days of snow operations are beginning to take their toll on Metro’s bus fleet. The number of buses available for peak service has decreased each day over the past week due to difficulties some coach models experience in the deeper snow or in prolonged icy conditions. There are still many roadways in Metro’s service area that are snow-packed, icy, or closed to travel.
Metro continues to take a cautious approach to providing the safest bus service possible. It is focusing on providing service on cleared highways and arterial roads, and to major transit centers and park-and-ride lots.
Bus passengers should be aware that travel conditions can change quickly, and this list of disrupted service may be revised at any time due to weather and road conditions. In some locations, where roads are impassable for large buses, Metro will be operating chained shuttles.
Passengers should be prepared to board buses at major transit centers, cleared arterials, or at the top or bottom of hills. Please dress warmly, wear appropriate footwear, and be prepared to wait. The buses that are running are expected to be significantly delayed.
This transit plan will continue until weather and road conditions improve, which means almost all bus service will be significantly limited. Metro appreciates everyone’s patience, and reminds customers that safety for passengers and bus drivers is the agency’s No. 1 concern.
Information about bus status is available on Metro’s Ice & Snow page, but conditions are changing rapidly. You can also call the Metro Customer Information Office at (206) 553-3000, but call volumes are high and there may be a wait to talk to a CIO representative. People should closely monitor the latest weather and traffic reports for information about travel conditions.
Worried about your roof as the snow becomes heavy and wet? Here’s some helpful info from the P-I.
3:31 PM UPDATE: Road report from co-publisher Patrick – SW Thistle between Denny Middle School and Delridge is UNPLOWED and NASTY. Delridge – which he traveled from Thistle to Andover – is OK. And if you’re heading south on Delridge toward/through White Center – Full Tilt Ice Cream is open (they’re usually closed Mondays; Justin explains on White Center Now why they’re open today)!
3:55 PM UPDATE: Before the daylight goes away – more photos from Scott C – first, the future park (part of it, anyway) at Myrtle Reservoir:
From there, 35th looking North:
And looking south:
If you can’t quite place Myrtle Reservoir – it’s next to the water towers, close to the highest spot in the city – here’s a map. Another shot – 35th at Webster, looking south (the northbound lanes look great):
4:01 PM UPDATE: This report just in from Tom:
Just took a walk from our house in Arbor Heights to the Roxbury Safeway. The side streets are terrible – close to a foot of snow on the road. Most of the tracks in the street are being made by the ATVs driving around our neighborhood. And the sidewalks are terrible – I walked in the street most of the way. However, Roxbury itself is fine. The snow’s melting, so the roads are bare with lots of slush on them. Sadly, we’ve got too much snow on our street for any serious melting to happen. Maybe tomorrow.
Here are some of his photos – first, Roxbury looking west (toward 35th a few blocks away):
Closer look at Roxbury and 30th:
And a snowman guarding Roxhill Park:
Reminder that traffic cams of West Seattle relevance — including the bridge, the ramp to I-5, and the ferry dock – can be found on the WSB Traffic page. Meantime, the libraries have just announced their plans for tomorrow:
The Seattle Public Library plans to open the Central Library downtown from noon to 5 p.m. and all 26 branches from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 23.
5:16 PM UPDATE: Mentioned this in comments and also published it in the Twitter box in the right sidebar (the light blue box) but for anyone who missed it there (that’s usually where we put instant word of possible breaking news, among other things) – the fire call was something small inside a house in the 6300 block of 46th SW and the resident reported it out even before the crews arrived.
5:33 PM UPDATE: No proof that it’s weather-related but no proof it’s not – Ballard had a somewhat sizable power outage for a while late today; here’s an update from our friends at MyBallard.com. With ice, snow, heavily laden tree branches still out there, keep those flashlights handy once again, just in case.
6:17 PM UPDATE: By all accounts (particularly in comments), the roads that started to get slushy today are freezing over again – so it may be even more dangerous out there than it was last night/this morning. Meantime, we just posted a separate Crime Watch story that’s going to stay atop the page for a while – the trash update is still in the works. (Bottom line though, if you have Monday delivery, don’t bring it in, they’re going to decide tomorrow morning whether they can make the missed Monday rounds on Tuesday.) We’ll also be updating the open/closed/links post by 8:30 with everything we’ve learned about tomorrow (although everything we know so far already has been posted here in the afternoon updates, or earlier). (Some of that information is already there now.)
9:06 PM UPDATE: The University of Washington has suspended operations again for tomorrow. We’re catching up with some of the West Seattle pix that have come in recently; for starters, via Twitter, RealLowVibe noted the posting of these pix from Alki Ave tonight, captioned “So much for effective plowing and sanding.” There are other nighttime road reports in comments — few of them good. Meantime – if things were normal, we would have been bringing you Christmas lights photos every night from around West Seattle. We got some of them in before Snowpocalypse ’08 (as many have dubbed it). In comments, it’s been suggested that we all plan on lights tours AFTER Christmas, once things are truly drivable again, and we can go for that. In the short run – any photos welcome if you can photograph your own lights or your neighbor’s lights – Johnston sent this closeup of his nicely iced lights:
Ours, on the shrubbery out front, are now sadly buried beneath the snow co-publisher Patrick valiantly cleared from the sidewalk. Also some nice sunset scenes tonight – Jana posted this one on Facebook after a trip to Alki:
9:38 PM UPDATE: The National Weather Service posted its latest “forecast discussion” at midevening. Excerpt:
TONIGHT AND TUESDAY WILL BRING A SHORT BREAK IN THE WEATHER. A WEAK SYSTEM WILL BRING A LITTLE MORE SNOW TUESDAY NIGHT AND WEDNESDAY MORNING. THE SNOW WILL CHANGE TO RAIN WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON OVER AT LEAST SOME AREAS. A LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM MOVING SOUTH ALONG THE COAST ON CHRISTMAS MORNING WILL BRING ANOTHER CHANCE FOR RAIN AND SNOW. A WARM FRONT FOLLOWS ON FRIDAY.
.SHORT TERM…TONIGHT IS A BLESSEDLY QUIET NIGHT. SKIES ARE PARTLY TO MOSTLY CLOUDY. TEMPERATURES WILL FALL INTO THE UPPER TEENS AND 20S. MELTED SNOW WILL LIKELY FREEZE AGAIN ON ROADWAYS…MAKING FOR A DIFFICULT COMMUTE TUESDAY MORNING.
THOUGH TEMPERATURES WILL ONCE AGAIN RISE INTO THE MID 30S ON TUESDAY…A WEAK IMPULSE MOVING ASHORE TUESDAY NIGHT WILL BRING SOME MORE SNOW. SNOW BEGINS LATE AND IS LIGHT AT FIRST…MAYBE AN INCH TUESDAY NIGHT.
10:08 PM UPDATE: We’ve published the trash-pickup story atop the home page; no startling revelations except perhaps that they don’t plan to be stingy about what “double” or “triple” pickup means when your trash DOES get picked up. Meanwhile, another closure note for tomorrow – in addition to the UW, which we mentioned last hour, South Seattle Community College (on Puget Ridge in West Seattle, for anybody who didn’t already know that) is closed again tomorrow too.
10:28 PM: Added another “amazing creation” to this post from earlier – a 12-foot snow angel. The flip side of all the snow – how easy it is to get stuck. If you are trying to get out tomorrow after staying home today, heed the advice of Kevin in Arbor Heights, who tells the tale of getting his “car STUCK in my own driveway, on relatively flat ground. I had it free after 5 minutes with a snow shovel. Just shows how little it takes to get stuck. Lots of ice lurking under what looks like fresh snow. I would advise folks to carry a snow shovel in the car if they have one.” Pic:
In case you’re wondering what else is going on out there – we’re taking some time tonight, besides sifting through the photos from today (thank you SO much to everyone who has taken the time to send them and please forgive us if we didn’t post yours), to check some of the usual sources we comb for West Seattle news in non-snowy times, plus working to update the events/holidays calendars (see the top “tab” bar under the sunset header – that’s how you get to other WSB pages) to catch up on more Christmas info. Will add updates here as we get them, of course, and watch the top of the home page for additional non-snow stories we’ll be adding in the next few hours.
11:26 PM UPDATE: Some more loose ends and interesting things to share. Remember the fire call earlier tonight, 6300 block of 46th SW (big dispatch as is SOP for a residential fire call, but it was out before crews arrived)? Kirk and friends happened to be out on a grocery run when several of the emergency vehicles went rushing by, and they uploaded it to YouTube:
11:52 PM UPDATE: Another interesting sight from the inbox – Heidi in Sunrise Heights reports they had to improvise when time came to come up with a sled for their “Little Man”:
Bonnie sent a beautiful photo earlier from Fauntlee Hills:
12:45 AM: Fascinating Times article about why the city doesn’t use salt on the roads.
1:06 AM: Seattle Police are getting called out again to Charlestown hill — “chronic location” as the dispatcher called it, “people drinking, snowmobiling, sledding.”
2:34 AM: Last item before we close this one out, with the morning post opening at 4 (and live updates resuming at 5:30) – from Hutch and company, the tuckered-out snowman:
| 172 COMMENTS