Update: West Seattle power outage peaks at almost 1,000 homes, businesses

| Utilities | West Seattle news

(35th/Barton 7-11 has power but its sign and nearby intersection do not. WSB photo by Patrick Sand)
7:25 PM: We’re getting multiple reports of a power outage in Westwood – 35th and Henderson is our most recent report – and at least as far south as 9800 block of 31st SW. More to come.

7:33 PM UPDATE: Fauntlee Hills is also affected, according to some we’ve heard from. This outage is NOT on the Seattle City Light map yet (lately, they seem to take a while to show up there) but we have a message out to SCL.

7:37 PM UPDATE: While waiting for word from SCL, we have a crew out checking on the extent of the outage. For starters – stoplights are out on 35th between Thistle and Barton, though the homes on both sides of the street seem to have power. Just got a call back from City Light – they say at least 600 customers (homes/businesses) are affected but they have no idea about the cause, yet.

7:47 PM UPDATE: The City Light outage map is starting to show the outage boundaries. Looks like part of Arbor Heights is affected too, and part of the unincorporated area east of 35th/south of Roxbury.

7:59 PM UPDATE: Our crew is just back from surveying the area and it’s as spotty as it looks on the City Light map – streets where one side is out and the other is not, for example. By the way – if you are reading this via a mobile device, WSB’er Jono reminded us recently that City Light has a mobile-optimized site – find it here.

8:37 PM UPDATE: City Light has now upped the total of affected homes/businesses to almost 1,000. But no update on the outage’s cause, yet.

8:57 PM UPDATE: And … just received a few messages about power coming back on (one was from 31st/Henderson). If after a while yours is still out, let us know.

9:04 PM UPDATE: John Gustafson at City Light says that almost everyone should be back on shortly if they’re not back on already. The outage was traced to “equipment failure,” a piece of overhead equipment called a “jumper,” though he says they’re not sure why it failed.

kas November 25, 2012 (7:27 pm)

32nd too. Called it into city of Seattle. No one there. Weird!

WSB November 25, 2012 (7:43 pm)

KAS – the automated system is how they take outage reports – I don’t believe you’ll ever get a live person. It’s frustrating to us because if you’re not in the outage area and therefore don’t have an “affected” phone number, it means you can’t get information without a media rep callback, but I did just get such a callback. They don’t yet know what caused it and they are still figuring out the boundaries/total number of those affected… TR

tina November 25, 2012 (7:30 pm)

My block of 34th and trenton

Tim D November 25, 2012 (7:33 pm)

power out on North side of Sw Barton St. between 30th and 35th.

Francesca Annis November 25, 2012 (7:36 pm)

No power at the north end of 32nd & Barton.

DRW November 25, 2012 (7:37 pm)

On @ 17th and SW Henderson St.

m November 25, 2012 (7:45 pm)

East side of 30th is on, west side is out. Between Trenton and Henderson.

Rsn November 25, 2012 (7:51 pm)

Called into SCL (3) times to report the outage, finally got thru on the last time. Their afterhours line hangs up if a customer rep is not available to pick up – very odd.

kristea November 25, 2012 (7:54 pm)

Our power at Pier 1 Imports in Westwood Village flickered on and off a few times. No lasting outage.

Westwood Neighbor November 25, 2012 (7:57 pm)

Lots of power at 35th and Cambridge!

mischa November 25, 2012 (8:12 pm)

West side of 34th south of cloverdale out, east side of 34th on :/

Olly November 25, 2012 (8:21 pm)

98th &28th is out also

Andi November 25, 2012 (8:21 pm)

The power is off on the other side of the street (32nd SW in Arbor Heights), but we’re fine! Spotty indeed.

Gyngersnap November 25, 2012 (8:50 pm)

We only lost cable, phone, and internet on 36th near Henderson. Back on shortly after 8:00.

Jim November 25, 2012 (8:56 pm)

Back on in Shorewood. 28th south of Roxbury.

Arika November 25, 2012 (8:56 pm)

Our power came back on 2 minutes ago at 28th & 99th ave SW!!

Bonnie November 25, 2012 (9:18 pm)

39th and Henderson. Did not lose power but our comcast internet went down.

LongTimer WS November 25, 2012 (11:44 pm)

Seems like Seattle City Light has had more power outages than normal recently. It’s also a concern that they keep reporting that it’s equipment failure. Maybe City Light has not kept up in the past with ongoing updating of equipment? This needs investigating.

Sue November 25, 2012 (11:54 pm)

I was thinking the same thing, LongTimer WS – we’re headed into a winter that some are saying might not be a nice one, and the thought of losing heat as it gets colder is not comforting.

hmm? November 26, 2012 (10:08 am)

Since this is becoming more frequent what are the odds that City Light needs to do some updating here? Are budget cuts stopping them? I know they keep raising their rates.

ws maverick November 26, 2012 (6:13 pm)

i know this problem was the same problem they had last year about this time. burnt up jumper wire

Kyle December 6, 2012 (12:19 am)

I’ve heard that a lot of our power equipment *like transformers on the power poles) come overseas from China where there is slave labor literally which effects quality over a product.

You figure out the rest. :)

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