12:43 PM: Thanks for all the tips! Power’s out for many – we have reports from High Point to White Center so far – South Park too. Seattle City Light maps more than 14.000 homes and businesses out in the early going.
12:54 PM: The total is holding steady at 14,000+. We were spared here at HQ in Upper Fauntleroy – just a flicker – but our server is running slow under the traffic spike; we’re also updating Twitter. Just heard on the scanner that this is believed to have been caused by a tree being cut and hitting wires in the 6700 block of 25th SW.
1:08 PM: Obviously with such a wide area out, there are businesses and schools out (please let us know, or comment below, if you have any specifics) – also traffic signals, so if you are out on the road, please treat those as all-way stops.
1:21 PM: Our standard power-outage reminder – though SCL’s map has an estimated restoration time, those times, as we’ve learned over 15+ years of covering outages (and also hearing directly from the utility), are NOT based in any specifics an generally are way off – restoration could happen a lot sooner or a lot later, so don’t base any decisionmaking on the estimate. Meantime, NO word so far of any early dismissals at affected schools.
1:36 PM: Commenter says Southwest and South Park library branches are closed because of the outage. … SCL now confirms the tree report and says crews are on their way.
1:47 PM: Other closures include Southwest Pool. … More on the cause, from SCL’s Jenn Strang: “A tree took down two feeders, which resulted in a large number of customers affected. City Light anticipates that we will be able to get the majority restored early this afternoon but there may be a smaller group of customers that will be out for a longer period of time.”
1:57 PM: South Park is back on (thanks to commenter Lesley for that news) – the SCL map shows that lowers the total of customers currently affected to about 13,000. (Added, commenter says South Park Library has reopened.)
2:06 PM: More power just restored, per texter and commenters in High Point and elsewhere. (Added) Map shows 9,000 still out. Here’s the updated SCL map:
Basically, most of the north half of the original outage zone is back on. Commenters note that’s brought some businesses and schools back on line, too.
2:20 PM: And as commenters are noting, even more are back on – now down to fewer than 400 customers still out.
3:07 PM: Texter sent this photo of the downed-tree scene:
Those who are still out are mostly in proximity to the scene.
3:14 PM: Southwest Pool has confirmed it too has reopened.
5:59 PM: SCL says everyone has their power back.
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