10:22 AM: Thanks to Nathan for that photo of Seattle City Light workers digging near 45th/Roxbury (map). City Light’s Scott Thomsen tells WSB that’s where crews first found trouble while trying to trace the source of an outage that’s kept hundreds without power since yesterday afternoon. He explains, “When the calls first came in, crews found a blown fuse and limiter near Roxbury and SW 45th. Those are devices that are designed to protect the transformer and they did their job. It took a while to determine why they blew. Ultimately, crews determined that the problem was a failed underground cable. We have identified where the failure took place and crews are working right now to dig up the failed section and replace it. Estimate for restoration of service is about 2 pm.”

11:52 AM UPDATE: Nathan reports his power’s back on (and the SCL map no longer shows any outage in the area). He says neighbors wonder if the problem had any relation to the underground work in the area these past few months; we have asked SCL that question and will update when we get the answer.

1:13 PM UPDATE: From SCL’s Thomsen: “I have confirmed that this section of cable was one of those tested during our cable injection project for Brace Point. It was deemed unsuitable for injection because it had deteriorated too badly. As a result, it was scheduled for replacement, but failed before that work started.” (The “injection” relates to the “underground work” link in the 11:52 am update – some of the recent work in the area had involved boosting aging cables with silicone injections, and scheduling replacements for those that were too far gone.)