UPDATE: Downed tree sparks big power outage in West Seattle

3:37 AM: Getting texts about a widespread power outage. More than 6,700 customers, says the City Light map.

No word yet on the cause.

3:48 AM: Don’t know whether it’s cause/effect/coincidence, but just heard via scanner that there’s a big tree down on California Way near Harbor Ave. Meantime, speaking of roads, remember that if traffic signals are out, that means 4-way stop.

4:15 AM: While we’re waiting, a word of caution – though the SCL map lists “estimated restoration” as 10 am, estimates like that are NOT grounded in anything beyond a guess, so it could be back much sooner … or much later. West Seattle’s last major power outage was on August 13th, 3,600+ customers affected, but to the south. Checking on north West Seattle’s last major outage. (Added: August of last year, a downed tree on Harbor took out 3,000+ customers)

4:41 AM: Longtime WSB contributor Christopher Boffoli checked out the tree scene:

He says police at the scene confirmed it’s related. (Added) Crews are there:

4:54 AM: City Light confirms the tree’s to blame.

5:31 AM: Getting word some power’s back on – Youngstown, near Alki, and 32nd/Genesee. Thanks! (Added: Other areas too – see comments. The SCL map lags up to 15 minutes, so we’ll see in a bit if everyone’s back or if some outage pockets remain.)

5:44 AM: SCL map updated. 80 percent of those who originally lost power have it back, but 1,314 customers are still out.

5:49 AM: Now 1,090 – here’s the updated-again map:

Thanks again for letting us know (text 206-293-6302) when power’s out, or restored – the SCL map can lag 15+ minutes, and when an outage is completely over, there’s no archived record of its end time.

6:56 AM: 755 still out.

10:14 AM: In addition to those 755, power is back out for 74 more. This is not unusual during repair situations. Readers who’ve been by the downed-tree site this morning sent photos – first, from Marc Milrod:

And from Stewart L:

Stewart says crews told him repairs might take hours longer to finish. We’re checking with City Light.

11:24 AM: Now everyone’s back except the cluster of 74 who re-lost power two hours ago.

4:35 PM: They’re not back yet. But work continues – here’s a photo from David Hutchinson:

And a wide view from Stewart L.:

9:13 PM: Still no relief for that pocket. City Light was still working when we went by right before sunset:

1:42 AM SATURDAY: And those 74 customers are still without electricity.

FINAL UPDATE: Multiple reports say they finally got the power back around 2:20 am.

117 Replies to "UPDATE: Downed tree sparks big power outage in West Seattle"

  • P September 18, 2020 (3:40 am)

    Admiral by met mkt out

  • BT September 18, 2020 (3:42 am)

    Yes we lost power at 3:30am, we live by Genesee and 44th SW

  • Kimberly Valadez September 18, 2020 (3:46 am)

    Thats what i get for staying up way too late with an almost dead phone for my alarm clock. Any news on the cause?

    • WSB September 18, 2020 (3:53 am)

      Not yet; there’s a report of a downed tree on California Way but as added above, don’t know if that’s related or coincidence.

    • West Seattle Best Seattle September 18, 2020 (3:58 am)

      SAME!!! 

  • newnative September 18, 2020 (3:49 am)

    The silence and heat woke me up. North Admiral, near California and Admiral.

    • Jenny September 18, 2020 (4:16 am)

      Same, without the fans this is stifling! 

  • David September 18, 2020 (3:49 am)

    Confirmed, power out here at the Admiral Chevron 2.

  • Joseph Butler September 18, 2020 (3:55 am)

    It went out just as water for coffee started boiling, thank goodness. I drive a Metro Bus for King County so I’m up early. My son’s elementary school class is learning about electricity & blackouts were discussed Tuesday of this week.How odd.Power came back on for a split second. Been out 20 min or so now.The fans that have been filtering air in our apartment are quiet for the first time in a week.

    • pelicans September 18, 2020 (4:34 am)

      Weird flickering ceiling and table lights at south Alki Point about 40 minites ago as I was dusting them both. OLD building. Thought it was the wiring. Yes, a nightowl dusting in the middle of the night. What else is there to do? Waiting for rain. 

    • pelicans September 18, 2020 (4:40 am)

      Thanks for getting up so early for all of us, not just bus riders!

  • So 2020 September 18, 2020 (3:58 am)

    Out near Boren STEM as well.

    • WSB September 18, 2020 (4:05 am)

      Outage patterns are always an oddity of which feeders etc. were affected – this is almost entirely north of The Junction except for a line paralleling Delridge all the way south to Juneau …

  • L September 18, 2020 (4:04 am)

    Energy company website estimates repair for 10am but still investigating. 

    • WSB September 18, 2020 (5:03 am)

      Tree is the cause, now confirmed. But as I wrote above, please remember, the estimated restoration times are pretty much useless. The utility acknowledges they are just wild guesses. Could be much sooner … or, as in occasional unfortunate cases, much later. Please let us know when it’s back, as the only thing that happens on the SCL map is that the outage simply vanishes (after about a 15-min lag)…

  • Steve September 18, 2020 (4:06 am)

    Charlestown SW and 41st SW, out.

  • aNc September 18, 2020 (4:15 am)

    Power outage woke me up Yup at 0329am. Power Went back in split seconds and our smoke detector went on for seconds too. Have to turn on my rechargeable lamp and here I am in my cell trying to check the outage in the seattle city lights web. Ok, need to get back to sleep. Zzzzzz

  • Treehugger September 18, 2020 (4:20 am)

    Fire department is at a condo on Harbor Ave across from entry to boat ramp.Street lights are on California Way but not Harbor Ave.

  • WC Wanderlust September 18, 2020 (4:20 am)

    Maybe coincidence, but about 30 minutes or so before power went out, there was what sounded like a huge wind gust outside my home office window (39th and Oregon). Looked outside and did not see any trees moving though. Quite bizarre now that power is out.

  • CarolynH September 18, 2020 (4:21 am)

    We live in N Admiral and just woke up to my dog barking like crazy. Wasn’t sure why until I realized our lights are out. He was letting us know I guess. If you live within a couple blocks you’ve now probably been woken up too by the town crier. Sorry about that.

    • SillyWhabbit September 18, 2020 (5:04 am)

      Your town crier deserves a treat and to be reminded who the good pupper is!

      • cjboffoli September 18, 2020 (5:41 am)

        The town crier deserves a muzzle. The considerate owner, who is attentive to and apologetic for the noise, deserves a treat.

  • Simply Soda September 18, 2020 (4:56 am)

    Power out west side of 44th Ave. SW in the 3800 block.

  • 22blades September 18, 2020 (4:59 am)

    Admiral & Fauntleroy (by Alki Lumber) Starbucks are dark. Junction is about to open. Cuz’ priorities…

    Lot’s of dark traffic signals. Remember to treat them as all way stops. The newer designs of lights with reflective yellow outlines really help.

  • Pat seaman September 18, 2020 (5:15 am)

    Does anyone know if the Safeway on California is out? 

    • cjboffoli September 18, 2020 (5:33 am)

      Yes. Totally dark. Power on at PCC though.

  • Chris September 18, 2020 (5:19 am)

    Are grocery stores out there too?   Safeway?   

    • WSB September 18, 2020 (5:20 am)

      The Admiral commercial district is dark.

    • Dogthief September 18, 2020 (5:26 am)

      I live at Element 42 in the same structure as the Safeway. The entire block is dark, though there is emergency lighting visible in the Safeway windows that’s about it. 

  • Alf September 18, 2020 (5:28 am)

    Fauntleroy Way SW & 35th near Gentle Dental is also out. 

  • Dogthief September 18, 2020 (5:30 am)

    And power just came back on: 5:29 a.m.

  • AdmiralSDV September 18, 2020 (5:30 am)

    Power back in Admiral, across from Safeway. 

  • Scott September 18, 2020 (5:30 am)

    Power just came back. 37th and Dakota. 

  • Awake September 18, 2020 (5:31 am)

    Power just came back on at 44th and Charlestown.

  • Chef September 18, 2020 (5:31 am)

    Power just came back on 44th & Genesee 

  • NW September 18, 2020 (5:31 am)

    We have connection 💡 41st and Dakota 

  • Alf September 18, 2020 (5:31 am)

    POWER IS BACK ON😊😊😊🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽 THANK YOU.

  • Steve September 18, 2020 (5:31 am)

    Back on at Charlestown/41st SW…yes!

  • Fin September 18, 2020 (5:31 am)

    Power has been restored to the North Delridge (Genesee and Avalon) area at 5:29 am

  • Judah stevenson September 18, 2020 (5:31 am)

    5:30am and our power just came back in the Avalon neighborhood, 32nd Ave sw

  • Not today, satan September 18, 2020 (5:31 am)

    Power back on 54th Pl SW.thank god because coffee, shower and laundry are all necessary this morning

  • Robert September 18, 2020 (5:32 am)

    Power back on at 47th between Hinds and Hanford

  • Joe September 18, 2020 (5:32 am)

    Power restored in North Admiral at 5:30 am

  • West Seattle since 1979 September 18, 2020 (5:32 am)

    Power came back on a couple minutes ago at 36th SW and SW Genesee

  • Stefanie September 18, 2020 (5:32 am)

    Power just restored 5:30 am. Alki off Admiral. 

  • Katherine September 18, 2020 (5:33 am)

    Back on in admiral 

  • Tom Weikert September 18, 2020 (5:34 am)

    Restored at 5;30 on California 

    • RC September 18, 2020 (6:05 am)

      Restored at 5:30 on Alki Ave.

  • Brian September 18, 2020 (5:34 am)

    -Admiral Metro Mkt is out, outage continues along 42nd SW from Adm Wy to north, not sure about south or Adm Safeway area. 

  • Derek Garcia September 18, 2020 (5:34 am)

    Power just came back in about two minutes ago. 26th and Oregon across form Delridge soccer fields. Street light just came back on too. 

  • valvashon September 18, 2020 (5:36 am)

    Back on at 51st and Admiral Way SW.

  • Alkiwendy September 18, 2020 (5:36 am)

    Power just returned on Alki across from Anchor Park.

  • Joe McDermott September 18, 2020 (5:36 am)

    Power back!

  • Donut Run September 18, 2020 (5:37 am)

    Power is on!  Admiral & 38th. 

  • Treehugger September 18, 2020 (5:54 am)

    Power on just now along Harbor Ave

  • B September 18, 2020 (6:03 am)

    Power is back on at 6AM. On Harbor Ave. 

  • KHynes September 18, 2020 (6:12 am)

    Power is . . . still not on.😬 N of Met Market

  • Jen September 18, 2020 (6:23 am)

    We’re still in the dark in our corner of N Admiral – 42nd north of the Met. Hopefully not too much longer…

  • LuLuBelle September 18, 2020 (6:45 am)

    61st and Steven’s area never lost power.

  • Nicole September 18, 2020 (6:46 am)

    Still no power. 44th and Admiral

  • Jessica September 18, 2020 (6:52 am)

    Still out at Admiral and College

  • Charon September 18, 2020 (6:52 am)

    My power is still out..42nd & College 6:52 am

  • Roger September 18, 2020 (7:06 am)

    We’re still waiting for the power to come back on near Massachusetts and Victoria.

  • Bmc September 18, 2020 (7:18 am)

    Power on – Lander and 38th

  • Drew September 18, 2020 (7:25 am)

    Still out near 44th and Admiral by Lafayette at 7:25am.

  • drM September 18, 2020 (7:31 am)

    Like most, restored here by now. But, the power did try valiantly to remain on. It failed over a period of about 7 seconds, going out and back on a few times, before finally giving up the ghost!! Could not have been too good for all those appliances and tools attached to power though. 

  • Sky September 18, 2020 (7:31 am)

    But *why* did a tree fall in the middle of the night?

  • Mo September 18, 2020 (7:51 am)

    Power still out North of met mkt on 41st

  • Andrea September 18, 2020 (7:54 am)

    Power still out on 44th between Admiral and College but only on the east side of the street. 

  • Jimmy September 18, 2020 (7:59 am)

    I’ve noticed no updates or comments in the last hour. For what it’s worth we’re still without power on 41st/42nd north of Met Market.

  • Sleepy September 18, 2020 (8:03 am)

    Still no power at 42nd & Ferry. 

  • Susan Van Hook September 18, 2020 (8:15 am)

    Power still out at 44th and Admirel!

  • newnative September 18, 2020 (8:16 am)

    Still out here 42nd and Admiral. 

  • G September 18, 2020 (8:16 am)

    Still no power at 42nd and College St

  • ANDREW September 18, 2020 (8:20 am)

    Power is still out (California & College) Fit Bar Cafe closed as a result. :-( Hopefully we’ll be back up soon! 

  • Sparky September 18, 2020 (8:20 am)

    One tree falling into the lines in an urban area should not take out nearly 7,000 customers.  City Light distribution engineers need to look into the redundancies and protective systems to see why this was such a large outage.  Something more than one tree in the lines seems to be at work. 

    • dftl September 18, 2020 (11:02 am)

      There are many things I could say to you, but I will stick with “Wrong”.

  • Mon September 18, 2020 (8:21 am)

    Power still out at California and College 8:22

    • Lisa P September 18, 2020 (9:24 am)

      Is power still out at California and College?  

      • newnative September 18, 2020 (10:21 am)

        yes! Everybody is getting their morning beverages at West Seattle Grounds. Thankful they are open. 

  • Admiral Mom September 18, 2020 (8:24 am)

    Once again, another tree on California Way has fallen. WSB, do you know how many have fallen within the past couple of years? When I walk up that way (a lot of commuters from the water taxi walk/ride/drive up there to get to Admiral) those trees look like they are ready to fall! Hopefully they will never hurt a person. 

  • Sandy September 18, 2020 (8:31 am)

    Power still out at Hill and California.Never ask what else can go wrong.

  • Wondering September 18, 2020 (8:38 am)

    Any news about if this impacts school today? Power outages are the new snow days…

  • Walter September 18, 2020 (8:55 am)

    Power is still out 2200 block of California ave sw.

  • John September 18, 2020 (9:06 am)

    Power still out at California & Hill St.

  • TW September 18, 2020 (9:10 am)

    Still no power at Admiral & College

  • Stagemel September 18, 2020 (9:12 am)

    Still out for about 700 in North Admiral…

  • Whitney September 18, 2020 (9:30 am)

    Power just went down for a 2nd time down on Harbor Ave by Don Armeni Park. 

  • John, Admiral district September 18, 2020 (9:31 am)

    Power still out at 9:30 am.  I’m on my second cup of coffee.  To make it interesting this time, I made a cup of Viennise coffee complete with half & half and cocoa.  Goodness to my portable butane powered stove; I was able to boil water.  Hopefully power will be back on within the hour.  

  • Rachel September 18, 2020 (9:33 am)

    Power was restored for us at 5:40ish but just went out again a couple minutes ago. Harbor Ave by boat launch.

  • Jns September 18, 2020 (9:45 am)

    Powers back out across from the boat launch on harbor Ave. We were on for a couple hours. 

  • Julia September 18, 2020 (9:51 am)

    Still waiting for the lights, on 41st SW and Holgate. :(

  • Blbl September 18, 2020 (9:52 am)

    Agree with Admiral Mom. This has to be at least the third tree that’s fallen down there in recent months.  They’re going to kill somebody.  

  • WS mom September 18, 2020 (9:55 am)

    Power still out California and College

  • Wsguy123 September 18, 2020 (10:09 am)

    Another fallen tree. The city needs to get a handle on these trees that keep falling. There’s been 3 on wsb this year and several last year. All falling on or near public roads where they could kill people or as we’ve seen, cause outages. Property owners like that last incident near PCC need to take action as well. Enough of this reactive attitude. Be proactive, it could save a life.

  • In the dark September 18, 2020 (10:22 am)

    Now estimated for 12:20

    • WSB September 18, 2020 (10:50 am)

      Again, restoration estimates are meaningless and I wish City Light would quit using them; we don’t include them in our coverage precisely because they are meaningless. In this situation alone, everyone was estimated as “10 am” shortly after the outage started; 80 percent were restored at 5:30. But in our coverage of dozens of major outages in the past decade-plus, there are also numerous times in which it’s way longer (extreme example, the Brace Point outage earlier this year that ran into a second DAY). Prepare for the worst. Don’t open your fridge, for example. – TR

  • Derek September 18, 2020 (10:32 am)

    Time for buried lines in Seattle. Long overdue. 

    • dftl September 18, 2020 (11:06 am)

      Well, if SCL implements a Local Improvement District for each neighborhood, they should be able to wring the cash out of the affected taxpayers to install underground power distribution throughout the city.

  • Pamela September 18, 2020 (10:51 am)

    The traffic lights at California and Admiral are out. Be careful because not all are aware and are blowing through intersection.   

  • Marian September 18, 2020 (10:52 am)

    Power back at 41st and Holgate

  • Erik Walum September 18, 2020 (10:54 am)

    Back on at ferry/cali 

  • Nrian September 18, 2020 (10:55 am)

    -Power on now @ 10:50 a.m. /42nd Ave SW between Admiral Way & SW College St. on west side of 42 Ave SW. -Metro Mkt across street powered up earlier

  • newnative September 18, 2020 (10:55 am)

    Finally back on. 10:50. 

  • AN September 18, 2020 (11:05 am)

    C. 1050a power back on at California and Walker

  • Bex September 18, 2020 (11:10 am)

    Is the light outage at Avalon and Fauntleroy related?

    I wouldn’t have noticed the outage on Alki except that it somehow triggered my brand new knockoff roomba to go a-cleanin’ and I woke up to it thunking against the tub in the bathroom at 3am.

    • KP September 18, 2020 (11:56 am)

      Best laugh I’ve had since the smoke settled upon us! 

  • flimflam September 18, 2020 (1:04 pm)

    Love WSB but for some reason I always chuckle seeing 100’s of people posting “mine is on” and “mine is off”. You can bet any time there is a power outage there will be minimum of 100 comments!

    • WSB September 18, 2020 (1:29 pm)

      And we REALLY appreciate that as the most recent iteration of the outage map has a more significant lag than its predecessor – up to 20 minutes. This morning when people started texting about the outage, it was those texts that gave the first clue it was widespread, given the texters’ locations. Trivia point, an 11,000-customer outage in December 2013 held the record for most-commented WSB story (604) until a bridge story beat it (730) this year. That wasn’t even the original “bridge is suddenly closing” story on March 23rd (464) but instead the April 15th revelation that it would be closed at least until 2022. – TR

      • flimflam September 18, 2020 (1:37 pm)

        i know, i know – maybe its just me but it tickles my funny bone for some reason!

  • WSCurmudgeon September 18, 2020 (1:16 pm)

    This answers the age old question, at least locally: “If a tree falls in the [West Seattle] forest,  and no one is nearby to hear it..”. Because we’re all going to hear about it from the WS Blog! 😉

  • Tracy Dethlefs September 18, 2020 (2:55 pm)

    Can I just say that the West Seattle Blog is amazing? I woke up at 3:30 shortly after the powers went out (fan went off, it was too quiet) and after checking the house decided to check the blog. Even at 3:30AM, you were already on it. Great work – thank you always being on top of EVERYTHING! 

  • Jay September 18, 2020 (9:44 pm)

    Anybody else’s Comcast out ? In admiral neighborhood ? We had power out as per above then Comcast off at 1240pm today 

  • jns September 19, 2020 (8:18 am)

    Power finally came back on for me at 2:30am this morning. What a long day without power. 

  • Osprey September 19, 2020 (10:00 am)

    For closure, I was awakened around 2:20am by my television, so got up to turn it and a few lights off when power returned to the last outage victims.Appreciation to the city light crews who worked so diligently  into the night, and to WSB for keeping us well informed while we were literally in the dark!

    • WSB September 19, 2020 (10:48 am)

      Thanks! I have email from someone else who cites that time for restoration, appreciate the update.

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