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Update: Harbor Island part of widespread Seattle power outage; most back on after an hour

March 9, 2012 1:37 pm
|      56 COMMENTS
 |   Utilities | West Seattle news

(Scroll down for newest info on big outage – mostly OUTSIDE WS – and its effects)

(Photo added 2:24 pm – Spokane/Chelan light, apparently the west edge of the outage)
FIRST REPORT, 1:37 PM: WSB’ers are telling us of a power outage stretching from Georgetown to SODO – but the City Light system-status map isn’t showing anything yet. We’re going to see what we can find out via other methods. Just got a note mentioning Harbor Island’s out, too.

1:43 PM UPDATE: Just talked to Scott Thomsen at Seattle City Light. Their “outage management system” is not letting people in for updates and that’s why the map hasn’t updated – but they apparently have TWO separate feeders out, totalling more than 6,300 customers (homes/businesses). No idea yet what caused it, but crews are being dispatched, Scott says.

1:51 PM UPDATE: WSB’ers are mentioning other areas in comments too, such as Beacon Hill. SDOT points out via Twitter that the signals in SODO are out along major streets such as 1st and 4th.

1:54 PM UPDATE: City Light just tweeted that 28,000 homes/businesses are affected:

2:03 PM UPDATE: The City Light map is working now. Screengrab in a minute. It verifies Harbor Island is affected (we have a crew headed that way, too).

2:10 PM UPDATE: Our crew checking out Harbor Island says the intersection by Chelan Café is out, just west of the low bridge. Chelan Cafe itself has closed their restaurant, but the bar is still open. Meantime, if you have kids in schools in the outage zone – which does NOT include any of West Seattle, to our knowledge, beyond the Chelan Cafe area and Harbor Island – Seattle Public Schools has tweeted this:

Seattle City Light now says the problem is at the “South Substation” (3839 4th Ave. South, the big SCL facility right off the ramp from the eastbound West Seattle Bridge) and that some might not get their power back till 6 pm.

2:34 PM UPDATE: As many commenters are pointing out, the power’s come back on for most. Scott from City Light tells us about 600 homes/businesses are left to be restored. He says the problem happened when a power line that was being worked on at the South Station touched another piece of equipment and caused a short that led to the outage. Nobody was hurt.

3:01 PM UPDATE: And one last update from City Light via Twitter:

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56 Replies to "Update: Harbor Island part of widespread Seattle power outage; most back on after an hour"

  • Soccer dad March 9, 2012 (1:40 pm)

    Just drove Michigan St to Safeco – 1st and 4th ave, all traffic lights out and businesses with employees standing out in the rain.

  • Octalpus March 9, 2012 (1:44 pm)

    Lights were out all along 1st, 4th, 6th, and Airport and the Old Rainier Brewery is dark.

  • Chris March 9, 2012 (1:44 pm)

    My work on 8th and Lander out, wifes work on East Marginal by the liquor control board is also out. That’s a big area!

  • KB March 9, 2012 (1:44 pm)

    Power is out in North Beacon Hill too, for what it’s worth…

  • Mdlg March 9, 2012 (1:45 pm)

    Columbia City area out, and I’ve heard Beacon Hill and Rainier Valley also affected.

  • Mdlg March 9, 2012 (1:45 pm)

    Columbia City area out, and I’ve heard Beacon Hill and Rainier Valley also affected.

  • Jessie March 9, 2012 (1:46 pm)

    Powers out on beacon hill 14th ave s next to the PAC med building

  • Beacon Hill Resident March 9, 2012 (1:46 pm)

    Power is also out on Beacon Hill, near 23rd Ave & Spokane.

  • A March 9, 2012 (1:47 pm)

    Dshs at MLK (Rainier) also out. Apparently as far north as pioneer square.

  • Chris March 9, 2012 (1:49 pm)

    Solar flares?

  • SafeInRedmond March 9, 2012 (1:49 pm)

    Just heard from my wife, 6th Ave and Snoqualmie, near the UPS distribution center is out as well.

  • Dave March 9, 2012 (1:50 pm)

    Power is out at VA Hospital as well. (except for there back-up)

  • Luci March 9, 2012 (1:51 pm)

    Might be those solar flares!

  • Preston March 9, 2012 (1:52 pm)

    up to 28,000 without power now.

  • kg March 9, 2012 (1:52 pm)

    Shopping at Costco when the power went out. We
    were able to check out due to them having generators but they have closed their entrance doors to new customers.

  • ScottA March 9, 2012 (1:52 pm)

    Several “Rescue Elevator” calls on the SFD 911 log appear to be scattered throughout south Seattle.
    And “auto fire alarm” calls and maybe even a couple of traffic accidents on the log are related to the power outage.

  • citiz#1 March 9, 2012 (1:53 pm)

    Yeah. ALL of beacon hill. Anyone hear any news of when it will back on?

  • ray March 9, 2012 (1:53 pm)

    Seems to be a LOT more than the reported 6,300 customers.

    • WSB March 9, 2012 (1:57 pm)

      We are continuing to add to the main story. City Light now says 28,000, and by 5 pm.

  • mookie March 9, 2012 (1:53 pm)

    Wow – the Seattle City Light outage map is finally loading – that’s a big power outage.

  • pam March 9, 2012 (1:54 pm)

    Solar storm!

  • Angela March 9, 2012 (1:56 pm)

    Nooooooo!! I have three errands for this afternoon: Tiles For Less, Home Depot, and Costco all in the Sodo area. Dang it!!!!!!

  • Preston March 9, 2012 (1:57 pm)

    They say Problem has been ID’d…so what was it?

  • Emily March 9, 2012 (1:57 pm)

    Select traffic lights on First Hill out too. Stay put if you can! Gnarly mess!

  • Ash March 9, 2012 (2:00 pm)

    I’m in Georgetown, just south of Costco. Email from IT says: “Approximately 30,000 customer are without power from Tukwila to Lake Union, edge of West Seattle to Lake Washington. The estimated time to restore is 4-5 hours for all customers…will need to restore power on a building by building basis over the next few hours.”

  • AR March 9, 2012 (2:13 pm)

    Seattle Fire has responded to 9 elevator rescues.

    http://www2.seattle.gov/fire/realtime911/getRecsForDatePub.asp?action=Today&incDate=&rad1=des

  • ScottA March 9, 2012 (2:14 pm)

    From http://powerlines.seattle.gov/2012/03/09/seattle-city-light-crews-working-to-restore-power-for-28000-in-south-seattle/

    “Seattle City Light crews are working to restore power for 28,000 customers in South Seattle.

    The power outage started about 1:20 p.m. when a power line touched a separate piece of equipment at the utility’s South Substation at 3839 4th Ave. S. Crews expected to restore service to all customers within about 4 hours.

    The outage stretched from Royal Brougham Street on the north to E Marginal Way on the south and from W Marginal Way on the west to Lake Washington on the east.

    For updates, please visit our online outage map at http://www.seattle.gov/light/sysstat .”

  • Jim M March 9, 2012 (2:14 pm)

    International district is out…..just called work and power os good in the Denny triangle area

  • Chris March 9, 2012 (2:15 pm)

    HOME DEPOT is open and accepting customers as of 1:50. They have generators, were welcoming people in and processed transactions with no issues.

  • KR March 9, 2012 (2:18 pm)

    Husband just sent txt that power is back on in his building in SODO.

  • Shirley March 9, 2012 (2:18 pm)

    Power back on in the International District as of 2:15pm.

  • Phil March 9, 2012 (2:20 pm)

    Power at 1st and King was restored at 2:15 p.m.

  • Jim McCabe March 9, 2012 (2:20 pm)

    Power is now back up in the International District.

  • Train March 9, 2012 (2:21 pm)

    Anyone know if Sounder Train is running at this point or is it too early? Can’t get to their website and phone lines…well…let’s just say the hold time is long.

  • MB March 9, 2012 (2:24 pm)

    Power back on just off of Rainier, near Franklin.

  • HuggyE March 9, 2012 (2:24 pm)

    Power is back up in Mt Baker (McClellan an Rainier near Franklin HS).

  • TK March 9, 2012 (2:25 pm)

    Power is back on! 6th South and Industrial Way

  • West seattler March 9, 2012 (2:25 pm)

    Power is back on for east marginal

  • smokeycretin9 March 9, 2012 (2:25 pm)

    HA! we got sent home at 2pm. now hearing it just went back on. HAAHHAHAHA!

  • hey lady March 9, 2012 (2:26 pm)

    Back up in Georgetown.

    • WSB March 9, 2012 (2:31 pm)

      Thanks for the “back up” reports. At this point, let us know if you’re NOT back up! P.S. to the Powerlines web update Scott excerpted earlier – the boundaries on these things are seldom accurate, which is why your direct report matters so much … The City Light map does usually have a decent sense of boundaries! – TR

  • HelperMonkey March 9, 2012 (2:31 pm)

    BF just reported power is back up in SODO, he’s down by Safeco Field

  • olive bean March 9, 2012 (2:34 pm)

    YEAH! Restored on North Beacon Hill too. ; )

  • Transplantar March 9, 2012 (2:36 pm)

    Just as a note, I work right along the light rail and it’s been running during the power outage, though much slower than usual as the trains had to stop at every intersection.

  • boundforcountry March 9, 2012 (2:39 pm)

    My sister reports that Beacon Ave South, south of Swift has power.
    Sound Transit has already msg’d that Light Rail is running at least 15 minutes late.

  • Ryan W March 9, 2012 (2:42 pm)

    So glad no one was hurt at the cause of the outage.

  • JEM March 9, 2012 (2:44 pm)

    Oh, well. I’m not turning around and going back to work now – Just ordered a beer!

  • Train March 9, 2012 (2:49 pm)

    Thx Transplantar. My co-workers were asking me, who is working from home to see if Sounder was running, as they were at the bar.

    I just had the joy of telling them the lights were back on too.

  • Chivahn March 9, 2012 (2:58 pm)

    Never lost power at the ActivSpace! Woo!

    • WSB March 9, 2012 (3:00 pm)

      Thanks again to everybody for first word of this. As I was explaining to somebody on Twitter, even though most of the outage was outside WS, since so many work in SODO and other south-of-downtown environs, it was pretty much a local story. – TR

  • Phil March 9, 2012 (3:11 pm)

    There’s a nice map of the outage on CHS at http://capitolhillseattle.com/2012/03/09/massive-power-outage-hits-south-seattle-capitol-hill-unaffected-so-far

    • WSB March 9, 2012 (3:16 pm)

      That was the screengrab from City Light. I never got around to snagging it, too much information-gathering via phone/Web to do; thanks for linking it! – TR

  • hopey March 9, 2012 (3:37 pm)

    Cracks me up that the Chelan Cafe was closed, but not the bar! :)

  • Rob March 9, 2012 (3:52 pm)

    Thanks very much for putting an early end to the day :-)

    Coworkers and I sought refuge at Beveridge place pub. Seems many others did also.

  • Velo_Nut March 9, 2012 (4:42 pm)

    The”Solar Flare gag was funny the first 5 times…

  • tm March 9, 2012 (6:28 pm)

    Solar flares are not a gag in relation to this. If you read The Seattle Times piece 2 days ago it mentioned this. The effects of a solar storm of that magnitude usually comes into effect 36 hrs after the actual storm. And those storms on the sun are ongoing. Check http://www.space.com

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