FOLLOWUP: What caused twin West Seattle Junction power outages, and what’ll be done to prevent more

Readers in The Junction identified that pole as epicenter of the two identical-footprint West Seattle Junction power outages this past Friday and Saturday – both taking out almost 500 businesses and homes for hours, both blamed on “bird/animal.” We followed up today with Seattle City Light spokesperson Julie Moore, who tells WSB: “It was indeed crows impacting the same spot two days in a row. We are pursuing installing avian protection at this location, which will require a scheduled outage to perform the work. I don’t have details on timing right now, but impacted customers will receive notification when the work is scheduled.” The City Light website explains avian protection and notes more than 200 known bird deaths a year – mostly crows.

9 Replies to "FOLLOWUP: What caused twin West Seattle Junction power outages, and what'll be done to prevent more"

  • JVP June 14, 2021 (3:29 pm)

    It’s got to be because we have 4,000,000,000 aggressive crows living within a one mile radius of here. 

  • Peter June 14, 2021 (4:22 pm)

    The crowd we have figured out how to disable our infrastructure in preparation for overthrowing the human race. We are doomed. 

  • Jim D. Raven June 14, 2021 (4:29 pm)

    A midnight theft at the nearby Shiny & Sparkly Things store, whose alarm system was out at the time, is under investigation.

  • Jort June 14, 2021 (4:36 pm)

    Crows are smart. By now the dangers of electricity would have been well-communicated through their crow network. If they are repeatedly damaging electrical systems, we can only assume it is very intentional and part of their bird plan. Perhaps the Dept. of Homeland Security should be informed of this.

  • TJ June 14, 2021 (5:22 pm)

    Seems like we only here about “bird/animal” caused outages this time of year. Not 9 other months of the year. 

    • WSB June 14, 2021 (7:01 pm)

      Checking our archives – and of course that doesn’t include all the other outages elsewhere in the SCL service area – we have bird-blamed outages in April, May, June, July, August, September, November. Maybe the wires are too cold to perch on in the heart of winter.

  • Jim June 14, 2021 (6:40 pm)

    Lots of places for short circuits in that mess. Notice the center fuse is popped in the photo.

  • crow hop June 14, 2021 (7:38 pm)

    It’s part of their cover, so we don’t catch on to their supremacy, realize we actually work for them, manufacturing the tube meats and flavored potato creations they crave.

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