West Seattle, Washington
04 Wednesday
Our weekly update on local pandemic numbers and notes is moving to Mondays for at least this week and next since the holidays are changing the county’s update schedule. That means this update contains 10 days of data, compared to the 7 days in our previous update:
KING COUNTY CUMULATIVE NUMBERS (through today):
*193,703 cases – 14,309 more than the data through 12/17 in our previous update (7,038 total in West Seattle, up 668)
*9,079 hospitalizations – 142 more than the previous update (265 total from West Seattle, up 3)
*2,153 people have died – 17 more than the previous update (77 total in West Seattle, up 1)
TRENDS
Go to the county’s dashboard page for a look at the graphs – while cases are up sharply, hospitalizations have risen at a lower rate, and deaths are down. That bears out in the West Seattle-specific stats – in particular, while the case numbers have jumped, the hospitalization rate has not increased nearly as much.
SEATTLE PUBLIC SCHOOLS STATS
Though school has been out for a week, the district added cases to its dashboard for the weekly update today, so we are incorporating the local breakout here. Districtwide, since last Monday, the cumulative case total for this school year is 1,194, 116 more than a week earlier. 23 of the new cases are in the Southwest (West Seattle/South Park) region. Here’s the local school-by-school breakout (as always, the total is cumulative since the start of the school year):
Denny International Middle School – 26, unchanged
Chief Sealth International High School – 24, unchanged
West Seattle High School – 21, up 10
Louisa Boren STEM K-8 – 16, up 5
Roxhill Elementary – 15, unchanged
Gatewood Elementary – 14, up 2
Highland Park Elementary – 14, unchanged
Genesee Hill Elementary – 14, unchanged
Arbor Heights Elementary – 14, unchanged
Madison Middle School – 12, up 1
Fairmount Park Elementary – 11, up 4
West Seattle Elementary – 10, unchanged
Lafayette Elementary – 10, unchanged
Concord International (Elementary) – 9, unchanged
Pathfinder K-8 – 8, unchanged
Alki Elementary – 6, up 1
Sanislo Elementary – 4, unchanged
BRIDGES @ Roxhill – 1, unchanged
VACCINATION RATE
81.3% of King County residents 5+ have completed their vaccine series – up .4% from our previous update
By West Seattle zip code – note that these numbers are still NOT available as 5+, so they reflect percentage of 12+ population:
98106 – 87.7% completed series, 36% had a booster dose too
98116 – 91% completed series, 47% had a booster dose too
98126 – 83% completed series, 40.1% had a booster dose too
98136 – 92.6% completed series, 51.3% had a booster dose too
98146 – 83.2% completed series, 32.3% had a booster dose too
(Find more COVID-related King County stats here.)
THE WEEK’S PANDEMIC HEADLINES
Quarantine/isolation recommendation changes – Expecting a wave of asymptomatic cases, the CDC has changed its recommendations for quarantine and isolation – here are the details.
New WANotify feature for home testers – If you test positive with a home kit, now you can enter that into the app that will anonymously notify users that they’ve been exposed.
NEED TO GET TESTED IN WEST SEATTLE?
The UW Medicine testing service in the Nino Cantu Southwest Athletic Complex parking lot (2801 SW Thistle) continues to operate; you can make an appointment here. Readers report that waiting time is long and walk-ups have been turned away. Meantime, the Curative testing kiosk at Don Armeni Boat Ramp (1222 Harbor SW) is also still operating (no availabilities are shown right now until next Monday), though readers report it was not staffed today (likely because of the weather). Curative’s Summit Atlas location is shown as reopening Tuesday, January 4th.
Seattle Public Utilities has just announced that it’s canceling residential solid-waste pickup tomorrow, too. Monday and Friday customers are now scratched until next week; what happens to everybody else depends on how Wednesday goes. Here’s the full announcement:
Due to significant remaining snow and ice on residential streets in Seattle, solid waste collections will not be able to safely operate Tues Dec 28. Garbage, recycling and yard/food waste collections are canceled.
Monday customers will be serviced next week – Monday Jan. 3
Tuesday customers will be serviced Wednesday, if conditions allow
Wednesday and Thursday customers will be collected this Thursday and Friday, if conditions allow
Friday customers will need to be delayed to next Friday, Jan. 7, due to the Jan. 1 holiday on SaturdayEssential customers will continue to be serviced this week.
SPU transfer stations will be open normal hours tomorrow (Tuesday) and the rest of the week. Household hazardous material locations will also remain open.
These photos, sent to WSB anonymously, were circulated among Lafayette Elementary staff after burglar(s) vandalized the school over the long holiday weekend. We confirmed the burglary today with Seattle Police and obtained the report narrative. Police were called Sunday morning and were told it happened sometime between Thursday and Sunday. The school custodian discovered the damage and showed it to officers, who described it as “a lot of vandalism … open cartons of milk spilled on the floor, food strewn all over the floor, and someone had thrown paint all over the room.” These photos and others show damage in multiple areas inside the school.
The report also notes “some of the electronic equipment was also destroyed” and that the officers were unable to determine how the burglar(s) got in. School is out for one more week; we are seeking more information from Seattle Public Schools on the damage and what’s needed for repairs.
1:17 PM: Thanks to everyone who’s been sending photos! The day was off to a spectacular start – sunrise glow on The Olympics. The photo above is from James Tilley; below, from Michael Burke:
This snowy Schmitz Park scene is from Theresa Arbow-O’Connor:
Joan Cooper photographed the shoreline snow at Alki/54th:
And via text, another snow creature on the Harbor Avenue shore:
ADDED 3:32 PM: Thanks to Genevieve Williams for this view of Westcrest Park:
ADDED 11:20 PM: From Brandi Bigford, geese on the Harbor Avenue shore:
Virgil‘s backyard, photographed by Al:
Cowboy the cat:
And Jemma, Megan‘s pup:
Got a West Seattle snow pic to share? westseattleblog@gmail.com or text 206-293-6302 … thank you!
Back on Friday morning, West Seattle had the second big early-morning power outage in three days. No indication at the time what caused it, and followup information wasn’t available later that day, so we followed up today. Seattle City Light spokesperson Jenn Strang says, “The cause of the outage in West Seattle that morning was due to a tree falling into wires along Harbor Ave SW. The outage started at 2:20 am with 3,249 customers, 1,996 customers were restored at 5:20 am, all customers were restored by 6:01 am.” (The outage two days earlier was also tree vs. line, but that one was in North Delridge.)
Though the major snowfall is over for now, getting around remains icy/dicey, and subfreezing temperatures persist, so some facilities/businesses have closures/cancellations again today. We’ll be updating this list throughout the day as we get announcements/info (got an addition or update? westseattleblog@gmail.com or text 206-293-6302) – here’s what we have so far:
CLOSED TODAY (MONDAY, DECEMBER 27) – FACILITIES/ORGANIZATIONS
Senior Center of West Seattle
West Seattle/Fauntleroy YMCA
West Seattle Food Bank
Delridge, Admiral libraries
Seattle Parks community centers, pools
West Seattle Golf Course (no golfing but you can sled or walk)
CLOSED TODAY (MONDAY, DECEMBER 27) – BUSINESSES
Bakery Nouveau
Cupcake Royale
Good Day Donuts
Head to Toe Day Spa (also Tuesday)
Illusions Hair Design
Itto’s Tapas
HeartBeet Café
Marination Ma Kai
Mission Cantina
Mode Music Studios
Patrick’s Café and Bakery
Pecos Pit
Skylark Café
Southgate Roller Rink
Starbucks shops (except Westwood Village)
The Birdhouse
Three 9 Lounge
Walgreens 35th pharmacy (though rest of store is open)
Youngstown Coffee
CHANGED/CANCELED TODAY
No residential solid-waste pickup – every collection day this week will be delayed a day
COVID testing site on SW Thistle opening at 10:30
OPEN BUT CLOSING EARLY
Circa open for lunch, closing at 4
6:12 AM: Good morning. For everyone who has to head out on this post-snowstorm morning – first, we have links:
ROAD/TRANSIT INFO
-City map of plowed routes, here
-City map of traffic cams, here
-Our page with West Seattle-relevant cams, here
-County map of traffic cams (choose “south” tab for White Center), here
–Metro buses are running Emergency Snow Network service reductions (continuing Tuesday)
–West Seattle Water Taxi (update) IS NOT running this morning (the shuttle routes are canceled too) – UPDATE, resumed 11:30 am
–Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth state ferry route on regular two-boat service
WEATHER
Upper teens right now. Today’s forecast – partly sunny, 20s.
More to come … If you’re headed out this morning, consider letting us know how your drive/ride went, once you get to where you’re going.
6:45 AM: Just announced – the West Seattle Water Taxi is canceled for the rest of this morning – we’ve updated the list above, “High winds and conditions at the Seacrest dock” are cited. The shuttles (Routes 773 and 775) are also canceled.
7:29 AM: We’re continuing to monitor but still no problems reported on the peninsula or nearby outbound routes. We do have one report of a downed tree across a path east of High Point, from Jethro:
This is “facing south on the paved path between the intersection of 28th and Myrtle and the stairs down to Sylvan Way. It’s a very large cottonwood that fell out of the church property to the west.” Also, Jethro adds, “We just sampled some driving and it’s not bad; Holden is covered in compact snow but quite grippy.
8:17 AM: Still uneventful out there.
11:58 AM: One more transportation note – West Seattle Water Taxi service has resumed.
3:13 PM: From a bus rider: “Tthe outbound C line is not serving Columbia and Western – it’s keeping going down 3rd instead, just let a bunch of people waiting at the stop know. It’s not very clear on Metro’s website. In fact the service advisory says ‘Regular route to WB SW Avalon Way & 35 Av SW,’ which is not correct.”
ADDED MONDAY EVENING: Metro says it’ll stay with the Emergency Snow Network routes/schedule for Tuesday, too.
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