Seattle Public Utilities sent us a community notice late today about repair work that might already be under way, as it was scheduled to start as soon as this past Monday, but in case it hasn’t: The notice says at least six weeks of emergency work is ahead to fix a pipe in the alley “between 36th and 37th Ave SW and SW Stevens St and SW Hanford St.” Service interruptions are not expected, SPU says, but adjacennt residents “might be asked to limit water usage” at time. There’ll be noise, heavy equipment, and construction traffic in the area. The work is starting on the south side of the alley and will move to the north after two weeks or so. Here’s the official notice (PDF), which includes project-team contact info if you have questions/concerns.

Earlier this week, we got a call from a reader concerned after receiving a Seattle City Light notice alerting to them for a planned daytime power outage later this week in Highland Park so a pole could be replaced. A 4-hour outage in the daytime might not have been a big hardship in the pre-pandemic days, but now a “residential” outage means cutting the power to many homes-turned-workplaces. So we asked SCL about it. Spokesperson Julie Moore tells WSB that the outage has been canceled and new notices about that were being taken around yesterday:

Seattle City Light remains committed to providing safe and reliable power while prioritizing the safety of our customers and crews. While important to maintaining and upgrading our infrastructure, we know planned outages can be burdensome, and even more so as our customers are at home working, teaching children, and maintaining a healthy life during the COVID-19 crisis. We’re temporarily adjusting our work to have the lowest impact on customers during this time.

As such, we are pausing all planned outages. Exceptions to this include emergency pole replacements where the work cannot safely be performed “hot”, emergency work necessary to restore service for customers who may be experiencing an outage, or to add a service connection for an essential facility (quarantine site, homeless shelter, etc.). As able, City Light will provide at least 48 hours advance notification for any of these situations.

Other pole replacement work will continue by placing new poles adjacent to poles in need of replacement and lashing them to the existing infrastructure, but we will wait until later to transfer services. City Light also will continue to do streetlight work and other work deemed essential as long as it does not require outages. Any work is in accordance with Governor Inslee’s Stay Home, Stay Healthy order and with protocols in place to meet all COVID-19 guidelines from the CDC, Washington Department of Health, and OSHA.

We will maintain this pause in planned outages at least through May 4, in alignment with the governor’s order. We recognize even as that order is lifted, many customers may continue to work or attend school from home. We will be thoughtful in our resumption of these activities, which are required to make repairs and upgrades to our infrastructure in a safe and efficient manner, and will do our best to work with customers to minimize impacts.

With everyone at home, more people might notice things such as discolored tap water. It happened to Jenny west of The Junction today, and she sent the photo. If it happens to you, here’s what to do:

Call Seattle Public Utilities at 206-386-1800.

They should be able to tell you whether it’s the result of a water-main break, or – as in Jenny’s situation – nearby hydrant testing. The latter often stirs up sediment (basically, rust) in the system, and that leads to tbe discoloration. After you’ve reported it, here’s what else to do.

This was so much of a problem a few years back that SPU did a major flush in West Seattle over the span of months in 2016 – read about it here. It’s important to let SPU know if you see it, because without so many reports back in 2016, they wouldn’t have done the flush.

10 AM: Thanks for the tips. 330+ customers south of Fauntleroy, centered in Brace Point, are without power. About a quarter of them have been without it since last night; the rest lost it last night, got it back early today, and just lost it again. We are checking with City Light.

10:02 AM: Some just got it back again.

3:25 PM: Just in case you were wondering – outage map shows everyone back on.

12:35 AM: Thanks for the reports. Another power outage – so far we have reports from High Point and Sunrise Heights. Here in Upper Fauntleroy, just a flicker. Sounds like a tree might be to blame – we heard a dispatcher mention Sylvan/Myrtle, just east of High Point, and another texter mentions earlier tree trouble there too.

12:39 AM: This is now on the City Light map – more than 4,000 homes/businesses – screengrab added above.

1:22 AM: Just got a few texts saying power is restored in High Point. The map lags a bit, so we’ll see within 15 minutes or so if everyone else is back too.

1:39 AM: The map shows about two-thirds of the original outage zone is still out – now down to 2,700+ customers:

2:02 AM: Now down to just under 1,000 customers out:

2:37 AM: And now, 714 still out.

6:57 AM: Map shows that since then, everyone has been reconnected.

10:26 PM: Getting reports of a short power outage in multiple areas – have heard from Admiral, Upper (and lower) Alki, Snake Hill, Seaview, Hansen View, Junction, Beach Drive, Gatewood, Genesee Hill, Morgan Junction (still adding) …, Did your power go out and stay out? Let us know – otherwise we don’t yet know what caused this.

10:39 PM: Still nothing on the City Light map so apparently no one went out and stayed out. No obvious incidents on the 911 map, either. When something similar happened two years ago, it was eventually attributed to equipment failure.

P.S. We’ll be following up with City Light and will update with the cause (likely not until tomorrow).

ADDED FRIDAY AFTERNOON: SCL spokesperson Julie Moore tells WSB, “We were doing some work that caused a momentary (two-second) trip of a breaker.”

3:40 PM: A reader in Gatewood reports a water outage and says SPU is working on a break in Morgan Junction – might not be fixed until mid-evening.

5:02 PM: Photo added – the crew is working on California SW south of Fauntleroy.

11:46 AM: Just received two reports of brown water in Arbor Heights – 35th/102nd is one location mentioned. We’re checking with Seattle Public Utilities; we’ll update when we hear back. If you’re experiencing it, be sure to call SPU at 206-386-1800, even if you know someone else already has reported it.

1:40 PM: Just heard back from SPU’s Ingrid Goodwin, who explains:

SPU crews had to perform an emergency water-main shutdown around 10:30 am today on 35th Ave SW between SW 100th ST and SW 104th St to repair a broken water main. Water was restored (back on for customers) around 11:30 am. As you know, shutting off water can sometimes cause temporary discolored water for customers. As of about 1 pm, our Operations Response Center reports receiving one call from a customer in the area about discolored water.

(WSB photo, Tuesday customers getting Wednesday pickup in Fauntleroy)

Update from Seattle Public Utilities:

Due to winter weather, residential garbage, recycling, and food/yard waste collections will be delayed by one day for the rest of the week. Solid waste contractors will run full operations today, picking up Tuesday customers.

Tuesday customers will be serviced today, Wednesday, with Wednesday customers serviced on Thursday, Thursday customers on Friday, and Friday customers on Saturday.

Monday customers who have carts out should bring their carts in and can set out double next week at no additional charge.

If your collection was missed on your adjusted set out day, please bring your carts in and you can set out double next week at no additional charge.

1:56 AM: Lots of reports of flickers (or slightly longer), in various West Seattle areas. So far we haven’t heard o anyone whose power went out and stayed out, and there’s nothing on the map, but apparently there was a related transformer problem in the 26th/Juneau area.

ADDED 12:32 PM: Thanks to K for the security-camera views of the flashes some noted at the time:

Those cameras are in the Westwood/east Highland Park area.

10:38 AM: Thanks to Mike Monteleone for the photo! Those Seattle City Light crews are working “in alley between 35th and 36th near Fauntleroy.” That’s the trouble spot that took out traffic signals and eventually 282 residential and business customers nearby. We’d been covering it in this morning’s traffic watch, but since the commute’s over, we’re publishing this followup, where we’ll add any updates, including the restoration of power.

10:44 AM: Moments after we published this, Kathy told us the power had just come back on. We had a crew on the way to check 35th/Avalon anyway – and they’ve just verified it’s all restored.

Thanks to the caller who just let us know about a water break west of Arbor Heights. She said it’s affecting their service in the West Beach Condos (10200 block of 47th SW) area, but Seattle Public Utilities told her it’s a few blocks west, on 51st SW, and they have a crew on the way, but service could be affected until after midnight.

With midweek holidays the next two weeks, this might be helpful: Here’s how city trash, recycling, and yard-waste pickups will change because of Christmas and New Year’s Day. If you have Monday/Tuesday pickup, it’s normal. But starting with Wednesday both weeks, everything slides a day – Wednesday customers will see Thursday pickups, Thursday customers on Fridays, Friday customers on Saturdays. Then with the week of January 6th, everything gets back to the regular schedule. Seattle Public Utilities recaps it all here.