One followup to our coverage of the Sunday morning power outage that at its peak affected 11,000 homes and businesses across the south half of West Seattle: Commenter “Zephyr” described a challenge with the automated outage-reporting phone system. In response, Seattle City Light‘s Scott Thomsen explains how it works and one step you should take NOW in case you have to report an outage, big or small:

It is important for us to know that someone reporting an outage is an actual customer, so the automated system we use when the call center is not staffed tries to identify callers by their telephone number. If you’re calling from a different phone, you can enter the phone number that is associated with your account.

If we don’t have a customer’s current phone numbers, the system will bounce the call. That’s one of the many reasons why its so important for people to make sure their information is current. We keep this information secure. We never share it with any other organization.

Customers can update their contact information online at seattle.gov/light/Accounts/cust_info.asp

Sunday’s outage was blamed on underground equipment failure; we still have an inquiry out for more specifics, including what’s been done in terms of repairs, and will report that information when we get it.