(Charlestown Hill, photographed by Christopher Boffoli)
This time last night, the wind was howling, but tonight, it’s quiet. Throughout the Seattle City Light service area, 20,000+ customers remain without power. No major outages remain in West Seattle, but some residents on west Charlestown Hill/Genesee Hill/upper South Alki were still out (some of them unmapped) at last report. One told us via text, “We are still out and so is our street and I just talked to SCL and they now say the new time is tomorrow by midnight. They were not able to give us any info on why we were still out when most around were good now.” As we told them, the 2006 windstorm – to which the outages from this one are being compared – also left some in West Seattle out for a lot longer than people nearby – the grid connects (or doesn’t) in mysterious ways.
IMPORTANT: If you’re out of power, preparedness guru Cindi Barker reminds us, don’t fall victim to carbon-monoxide poisoning from heating/cooking sources:
Carbon monoxide is a poisonous and odorless gas that cannot be seen or smelled. It can kill a person in minutes. If you don’t have electricity, prevent poisoning from carbon monoxide.
-ONLY use a generator outdoors and far from open windows and vents
-NEVER use a generator indoors in garages or carports
-NEVER cook inside on a charcoal or gas grill
Other notes include a Comcast/Xfinity outage that several have mentioned, and wind damage trashing the early holiday decorations at the famous “4040 house.” A couple readers have mentioned there’s even crowdfunding set up in hopes they can recover in time for this season after all.
As for the weather – no more major wind in the forecast, but looking at next week, there are multiple mentions of possible snow showers!
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