UPDATE: Power outage in southwest West Seattle blamed on branch

| Utilities | West Seattle news

9:09 AM: Thanks for the tip! 23 homes in southwesternmost West Seattle have been without power since just before 6:30 this morning. No cause listed yet; we’re checking with Seattle City Light; a screengrab of SCL’s outage map shows the outage location.

3:36 PM: The outage has ended since we last checked the map earlier this afternoon. Here’s what SCL’s Jenn Strang tells us about the cause: “Crews found a blown fuse caused by a tree branch contacting wires near 47th Ave SW and Maplewood Place SW. Additional vegetation management and overhead line crews needed to be called in to clear multiple spots of branches growing into the lines in this area before reenergization.”

Neighbor September 18, 2023 (10:01 am)

We’re right above and saw a flash and heard a bang at 6:10. Glad it was just a power outage!

Jeff S September 18, 2023 (11:37 am)

Is it just me or does it seem like West Seattle zip codes have more power outages per year then the rest of the city? Be interesting to see the annual data on this. I’ve heard that much of W Seattle is on a sensitive power grid that’s in Georgetown and that’s why. Unsure if that’s accurate but it sure seems like we have many outages compared to other parts of the city I’ve previously lived in or even compared to other WA state cities I’ve lived in.

WSB September 18, 2023 (11:51 am)

There are power outages every day in the city (I usually look at the map to be sure we’re not missing something.) Most neighborhoods, however, don’t have 24/7 community news sites that routinely report on power outages (among many other things) … All that said, I don’t have stats. SCL doesn’t even archive outages on its site, which is one reason we mention any double-digits-and-up outagess we hear about, so there’s a public record somewhere!