UPDATE: South Alki power outage

| Utilities | West Seattle news

10:04 AM: Thanks for the tips. Almost 300 customers in the South Alki area lost power about 20 minutes ago; above is a screengrab of the Seattle City Light map that shows the area affected. No official cause listed by SCL yet but Lamont, who lives in the area, reports finding a dead bird beneath a transformer.

1:30 PM: Lamont reported that power was back as of just after 1 pm, but SCL’s map hasn’t updated yet.

2:45 PM: Checked back on the map and it does now reflect that this outage has been completely resolved.

Lamont August 19, 2023 (10:24 am)

Looks the same as this outage in Jan:

https://westseattleblog.com/2023/01/power-outage-in-south-alki/

And there was a dead bird under the same transformer.

Svenry August 19, 2023 (10:40 am)

The explosion was pretty loud as heard from south of La Rustica. Unfortunate news, but thankful to know the source.

anonyme August 19, 2023 (12:22 pm)

Why are these transformers not built so that birds or animals are prevented from accessing the devices in a way that causes such events – and also prevents the death of the animals involved? I have to believe that there must be a relatively simple solution to this problem. Same with wind turbines, which kill lots of birds. I really don’t see why any wire should be live. Are humans really that dumb, or do they just not care? I mean, even if you don’t care how other species are affected, this is a pretty common (and problematic) occurrence that seems entirely preventable.

Lamont August 19, 2023 (12:37 pm)

I think SCL trucks just rolled up with a new transformer so hopefully we’ll have power back in a few.

Cathy August 19, 2023 (12:46 pm)

Rotten telephone just keeled over, lines landed on top of a UHaul van. Talked to man who was inside van. He thought he was dead for sure. He’s moving into or out of that corner house on 64th and Beach Dr. The lines hit another car as well. I have photos but don’t know how to post here.

Lamont August 19, 2023 (1:04 pm)

Power is back now

WSB August 19, 2023 (1:27 pm)

Thanks, we just walked back into HQ and checking the map was going to be my next stop!

Marcus August 20, 2023 (6:25 am)

There are bird guards that can be installed on the pole mounted transformer. Direct to install yet a bit labor intensive for all transformers. I do not recall that critter outages are common considering tree related outages.

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