Residents in the 37th/Elmgrove area of Gatewood say their water’s just come back on after a while without it tonight. Mark Ahlness tells WSB that city crews explained “it was a broken 8-inch water main on SW Elmgrove,” and that crews have “replaced the broken portion.” Elmgrove has been closed between 35th and 37th for the work. A WSB crew also has just stopped by the scene, and we’re told the road should reopen within a few hours, once the hole dug for the pipe fix has been re-filled.

(35th/Barton 7-11 has power but its sign and nearby intersection do not. WSB photo by Patrick Sand)
7:25 PM: We’re getting multiple reports of a power outage in Westwood – 35th and Henderson is our most recent report – and at least as far south as 9800 block of 31st SW. More to come.

7:33 PM UPDATE: Fauntlee Hills is also affected, according to some we’ve heard from. This outage is NOT on the Seattle City Light map yet (lately, they seem to take a while to show up there) but we have a message out to SCL.

7:37 PM UPDATE: While waiting for word from SCL, we have a crew out checking on the extent of the outage. For starters – stoplights are out on 35th between Thistle and Barton, though the homes on both sides of the street seem to have power. Just got a call back from City Light – they say at least 600 customers (homes/businesses) are affected but they have no idea about the cause, yet.

7:47 PM UPDATE: The City Light outage map is starting to show the outage boundaries. Looks like part of Arbor Heights is affected too, and part of the unincorporated area east of 35th/south of Roxbury.

7:59 PM UPDATE: Our crew is just back from surveying the area and it’s as spotty as it looks on the City Light map – streets where one side is out and the other is not, for example. By the way – if you are reading this via a mobile device, WSB’er Jono reminded us recently that City Light has a mobile-optimized site – find it here.

8:37 PM UPDATE: City Light has now upped the total of affected homes/businesses to almost 1,000. But no update on the outage’s cause, yet.

8:57 PM UPDATE: And … just received a few messages about power coming back on (one was from 31st/Henderson). If after a while yours is still out, let us know.

9:04 PM UPDATE: John Gustafson at City Light says that almost everyone should be back on shortly if they’re not back on already. The outage was traced to “equipment failure,” a piece of overhead equipment called a “jumper,” though he says they’re not sure why it failed.

Neighbors on and near 62nd SW south of Admiral Way will have something to be thankful for next week – the expected end of work on a weeks-long project to re-line a county sewer pipe, which has involved night work and has even required some neighbors to spend “a few nights in hotels,” says Doug Marsano from the county Wastewater Treatment District. He reports that the pipe lining itself is done, and now the final phase includes re-lining the manholes along the line. Crews aren’t working during the holiday weekend but are expected to be back on the job next week.

That underground video shows what West Seattle Reservoir in Highland Park looked like three years ago, before the city finished covering it and filling it with water – one of two now-buried reservoirs in WS, along with Myrtle Reservoir between High Point and Gatewood.

While they’re out of sight, today they are not at all out of mind: While Seattle Public Utilities insists there are “no safety issues,” they confirm that both of West Seattle’s underground reservoirs – along with two others in the city – are undergoing seismic evaluations, to determine whether there’s a chance they might leak if there’s an earthquake.

This story broke last night at SeattleTimes.com (WSB partner); reporter Lynn Thompson writes that a firm that worked on the projects brought the potential problem to the city’s attention, saying their seismic calculations were based on above-ground structures, not underground ones. We talked about the report with SPU spokesperson Andy Ryan, who says test results won’t be in till spring, and once they are, if they show a potential seismic risk, then they’ll decide how to handle it. “We don’t expect that this is going to cost the public any more,” Ryan told WSB, pointing out that they recovered almost the entire cost of work done three years ago after Myrtle and Beacon Reservoirs’ waterproofing membranes were found to be leaky. (We broke that story here on WSB in July 2009, researching and reporting it after watchful neighbors noticed unusual work at the site and started inquiring. As Thompson’s story in The Times notes, the city and its contractors settled that case two years ago.)

Ryan says the seismic discovery – not related to the waterproofing issue, though both involved the design firm MWH – is not new; the evaluation, involving “sophisticated modeling,” has been in the works a while: “We have been working for a year and a half to get this modeling set up, to find the right people.” He stresses there is no current safety issue, no leakage – they just want to be sure there wouldn’t be, even in case of catastrophe.

One more thing we’ll be checking on: Both reservoir-covering projects in West Seattle led to the development of new park space. Myrtle is done, but WS (adjacent to Westcrest Park) is not – so we will check with Seattle Parks to see if waiting for evaluation results there might affect construction plans there.

One followup to our coverage of the Sunday morning power outage that at its peak affected 11,000 homes and businesses across the south half of West Seattle: Commenter “Zephyr” described a challenge with the automated outage-reporting phone system. In response, Seattle City Light‘s Scott Thomsen explains how it works and one step you should take NOW in case you have to report an outage, big or small:

It is important for us to know that someone reporting an outage is an actual customer, so the automated system we use when the call center is not staffed tries to identify callers by their telephone number. If you’re calling from a different phone, you can enter the phone number that is associated with your account.

If we don’t have a customer’s current phone numbers, the system will bounce the call. That’s one of the many reasons why its so important for people to make sure their information is current. We keep this information secure. We never share it with any other organization.

Customers can update their contact information online at seattle.gov/light/Accounts/cust_info.asp

Sunday’s outage was blamed on underground equipment failure; we still have an inquiry out for more specifics, including what’s been done in terms of repairs, and will report that information when we get it.

(Screengrab from City Light outage map when outage was at its peak, 5:50-ish am)
ORIGINAL REPORT, 4:37 AM: Power’s out at WSB HQ in Upper Fauntleroy and elsewhere in Gatewood and near Lincoln Park, per texts we’ve gotten. Investigating further.

4:44 AM: Not on City Light’s outage map, which only means they haven’t had time to post it yet. We’re getting messages from High Point, too, as well as north Morgan Junction, but WSB’ers in Admiral and Alki say they’re still powered.

4:50 AM: City Light map is updated now. 3265 “customers,” which means homes/businesses.

5:04 AM: The City Light map shows this outage isn’t one contiguous area, and that’s what our spotter crew is finding. Heading north, it’s on in part of Gatewood. On at California/Fauntleroy. But we’ve had reports further north of there.

5:18 AM: City Light has now issued an official news release but does not have an estimated restoration time. Meantime, our crew on the road says the outage zone seems to be shifting – he went past one area in the High Point vicinity that was OK a few minutes ago and now is out.

5:31 AM: Some just got power back – the lights on 35th through Gatewood/High Point are back on but in “flashing” mode.

6 AM: The City Light map just dramatically increased the number of homes/businesses affected to almost 11,000.

6:07 AM: Just got our power back (California/Thistle vicinity). Who’s still out?

6:20 AM: City Light spokesperson Mark Van Oss tells WSB that “underground equipment” caused this. If anybody IS still out, it might be as late as 11 am before it’s back.

6:43 AM: City Light map now shows 1,700+ homes/businesses still out.

7:15 AM: Down to about 700, and City Light says everyone should be back on within a half-hour or so.

8:38 AM: And they are – at least according to the map. P.S. Though the official news releases earlier capped the outage at the original 3,200+ number, SCL’s Van Oss confirms it was indeed up to almost 11,000 for a while: “In attempting to reroute power to restore a portion of customers with another feeder (major power line), that second feeder relayed out. So, a second block of customers was out for about 20 minutes. This would have included Westwood. Your numbers are correct.”

8:53 AM: That’s reflected in the final news release, which specifies a failed underground cable as the cause:Read More

ORIGINAL REPORT, 2:10 PM: Two outages of note – Right now, water is out along a stretch of 35th SW, says Dawnee, who lives near 35th/Findlay; she says crews told her it was “emergency repairs.” We’ll check with Seattle Public Utilities. Earlier, 69 “customers” (homes/businesses) were out for a few hours in part of Highland Park. After someone asked us about it we checked and noted that it was labeled a “planned outage.” Seattle City Light told us it was to enable tree-trimming near power lines; we asked how notice is given, since the person who contacted us said it caught him by surprise – spokesperson Scott Thomsen says usually notice comes in postal mail a couple weeks ahead of time.

4 PM UPDATE: SPU’s Ingrid Goodwin explains the water outage:

SPU water crews were performing routine maintenance when they encountered a problem that required an emergency shut-down of the watermain. About 80 homes and 6 hydrants were without water for about 15 minutes while crews corrected the problem. Water was restored to all customers about shortly after 2 pm.

Just north of the Fauntleroy ferry dock, work at the Barton Pump Station upgrade project is about to intensify – with what project spokesperson Annie Kolb-Nelson calls some “pretty major equipment” arriving starting tomorrow. It’s equipment needed for “jet grouting,” which this project is using instead of pile driving “because it’s quieter and better for working around other underground utilities,” she says. The work over the next few months will affect the ferry dock, too, with some lane closures. Full details are on this flyer. Kolb-Nelson reminds those concerned that “people with questions or concerns during business hours can contact Kristine Cramer directly at 206-263-3184 or e-mail kristine.cramer@kingcounty.gov. We also have a 24-hour project hotline, which is 206-296-2999.”

3:42 PM: One Genesee Hill area resident says she heard a “boom” – then the power went out. The outage wasn’t on the City Light map when we got that note, but it is now: 157 homes affected, with restoration expected by early evening. The cause is listed as “bird/animal.”

5:13 PM NOTE: Back on, according to commenters AND the City Light map. (The image above is a screengrab of the map, before the power was restored.)