1:32 AM: Police are being summoned to help direct traffic near Avalon/Genesee because of a water break. You’ll want to avoid that area for a while. No details on the cause or extent of the break; if you’re experiencing water trouble, be sure to notify SPU at 206-386-1800.

1:54 AM: Thanks for the video – above, emailed by Michael; below, from a texter, showing water flowing down Genesee from Avalon:

Michael says the break appears to have originated right in front of the Marq Apartments at 3261 SW Avalon Way.

9:04 AM: As noted by commenters, this isn’t fixed yet. Thanks for the photos – this one is from Anthony:

We just talked with Seattle Public Utilities spokesperson Sabrina Register. She says they don’t have an estimate yet for how much longer it will take to fix; 43 customers are affected (but that counts an entire apartment building as one “customer”). The broken line is an 8″ pipe; cause, not yet officially known – though that entire stretch is part of the big SDOT project, overnight work was not scheduled.

2:20 PM: After 13 hours, some in the area are reporting their water’s back on.

(From SDOT bridge camera)

As previewed on Friday, the inside lanes of the high bridge are blocked off for hydrant testing, scheduled to reopen by midafternoon. Seattle Public Utilities spokesperson Sabrina Register wants to be sure you know there’s one other possible effect of the hydrant testing: Discolored water (sediment such as rust gets stirred up with the lines opened). If it happens at your residence, she says, “The water is safe and should clear on its own or after running the cold water for a few minutes.” But if it doesn’t, or if you have questions, you can call SPU at 206-386-1800.

(Map added 8:57 pm)

8:43 PM: Thanks for the tips – power outage in north West Seattle. A police dispatch indicates a downed tree in the 2300 block of Harbor Ave SW is to blame. More…

8:51 PM: Don’t know the extent of the outage yet – it has yet to appear on the City Light map. So thanks for your comments with location reports.

8:53 PM: Finally appeared on SCL’s map. More than 3,000 homes/businesses.

9:13 PM: Thanks to Paul for that photo of the fallen tree, pre-dusk; Pep posted the one below in a comment, with crews on scene:

Avoid that area for a while as they work to clear the tree and fix the lines. ALSO IMPORTANT: Though City Light has added an “estimated restoration” time of 2:58 am, please remember those times are just guesses and it could be much earlier – more often before the estimated time than after.

9:37 PM: Some if not all are back on, about one hour after the outage began.

9:44 PM: SCL map has updated, showing 333 customers (homes/businesses/buildings) still out, mostly near the tree-down site.

1:02 AM: Map shows those 333 are still out after 4 1/2 hours.

6:34 AM: Commenter Kalo says the power returned around 4:40 am.

The photo is courtesy of Deb Barker, who reports that crew is on scene fixing a water break:

Just talked with supervisor Oscar, who said that the main broke because it’s old. His emergency repair crew will have to shut off the water to repair the pipe tonight. He’s notifying businesses between Graham and Holly to find out when they close to be least disruptive. The crew will backfill and temp patch the hole tonight. They know it’s a bus route.

(Deb is president of the Morgan Community Association, which incidentally has its quarterly meeting tomorrow night – info and agenda here.)

Back in 2012, the city did a test run of every-other-week garbage pickup in a few neighborhoods including 200 households in Highland Park. Then in 2013-2014, it floated the idea of making the change citywide – but eventually scrapped the idea. Now the concept is up for discussion again. Seattle Public Utilities is on the agenda of the City Council’s Civil Rights, Utilities, Economic Development, Arts Committee – chaired by District 1 Councilmember Lisa Herbold – tomorrow to revisit the idea. No formal proposal, just a briefing and discussion looking back at the pilot, including this slide deck:

Though some things have changed in the years since the pilot – required food-scrap composting, for example, has reduced odor-producing trash – the presentation still concludes it’s not time, yet, for a new proposal to change trash pickup to every other week. However, the city “could consider providing
voluntary, subscription EOW garbage collection,” SPU suggests. The meeting featuring the discussion is set for 9:30 am tomorrow (Tuesday, July 9th) at City Hall, streamed via Seattle Channel.

9 PM: Thanks for the tips. What was described as a boom and a flash is apparently the result of another bird/power line conflict, this time north of Lincoln Park. The Seattle City Light map shows one customer out – though it’s not clear whether that’s a single residence or an entire multifamily building – along Lincoln Park Way.

9:08 PM: The map just updated to 22 customers affected.

10:24 PM: Thanks to Diana for the tip. She says a loud boom preceded a power outage that the Seattle City Light map says is affecting 43 customers just southwest of California/Fauntleroy. The utility blames the outage on “bird/animal” – we’ve had several of those lately.

2:15 AM: The map shows the outage is over.

9:15 PM: Thanks to Robert for the tip: 119 customers are out of electricity in Upper Alki. Robert says a “loud bang” preceded the outage. No cause listed yet. Checking the SCL outage map, we also note a 19-customer outage in The Junction blamed on “equipment failure.”

11:23 PM: Map indicates the Alki-area outage has been resolved.

Thanks to Alan for the tip: Looks like another crow-vs.-transformer power outage, this time centered in the 3800 block of 41st SW. The Seattle City Light map started off showing just one customer but is now up to nine. If you’re out but beyond what’s shown on the map, call to be sure they know (206-684-3000)!

Thanks to Maureen for word of a power outage that has at least half a dozen homes without electricity along 59th SW, south of Admiral Way, in Upper Alki. She says a crow is believed to be to blame, and lost its life in the process – “the outage started with a loud bang,” and the crow was found under the pole. City Light is on the scene and told Maureen it’ll likely take two hours or so to reconnect everybody.

SDOT sends this reminder about a water shutoff tonight, as noted earlier in the most-recent update on the Avalon/35th project:

In coordination with our work to replace the water main on 35th Ave SW, SPU will complete their first water shutoff tonight to cut the water main and install a temporary bypass in preparation for connecting the new water main. The shutoff will take place from 9 PM to 6 AM for neighbors living on 35th Ave SW and 36th Ave SW from SW Snoqualmie St to SW Avalon Way.

If your water is scheduled to be shut off, you should have already received a door hanger/ flyer from SPU.

Crews will use a temporary noise permit to complete this work and you can expect this work to be noisy as SPU crews cut and replace pipes throughout the course of the evening. SPU is doing this work at night to minimize the impacts of the water shut off.

If you have questions about this water shutoff, please contact SPU’s Utility Service Team at 206-684-5800.

That’s part of a notice a resident “south of Solstice Park” shared with us on Wednesday. The notice didn’t go into details about the reason for the “planned outage” so we asked Seattle City Light today. SCL’s Scott Thomsen explained that as the utility continues inspecting poles for potential replacement, several in that area have “moved to the top of the list” and will be replaced on Saturday. He believed the outage would affect “dozens” of customers, all of whom should have been notified directly already.

SIDE NOTE – WHAT IF YOU SEE A PROBLEM POLE? This gives us the opportunity to share informatioon we obtained recently after another reader emailed wondering how to report a leaning pole in his neighborhood. Neither we nor the reader could find the answer on SCL’s website; the reader didn’t think the pole was in imminent danger of falling, so he contacted SCL the next weekday morning. He told us the utility sent out a crew, with a replacement pole installed shortly thereafter. Meantime, we asked SCL’s Julie Moore how to report a pole problem. Her reply:

Throughout the city of Seattle and the utility’s suburban franchise cities, Seattle City Light has a network of more than 90,000 utility poles. These utility poles carry power lines as well as communication lines for other entities (e.g., phone, broadband, and fire department signals). The services carried on the poles vary from neighborhood to neighborhood and street to street. Occasionally, utility pole replacements are necessitated by a variety of reasons, including infrastructure upgrades to add space for new equipment and structural instability from old age, weather, wildlife, and even vehicle-pole collisions.

If you see a utility pole that you believe may potentially be structurally unsound, it can be reported in several ways:

*Call 206-684-3000
*Submit an online service request
*Report through Find It, Fix It mobile app

To assist our crews with finding the correct pole, please include the pole number, which is on a yellow and black tag about six feet up the pole.

If you believe it is an emergency (e.g., the pole has fallen, could fall imminently, or lines are down), call 911.

Last night’s low was into the 40s. No heat at Kristin‘s house in West Seattle – and she wanted to be sure what happened to her doesn’t happen to you.

Kristin and her family weren’t home when Puget Sound Energy came by for some gas-meter maintenance on Tuesday. The maintenance led to their gas service being shut off – and left off – and they had to make an appointment to get it turned back on.

What she learned, and what we confirmed when checking on this with PSE, is that the date/time was announced by postal mail – but the utility does not require confirmation. If they don’t hear from you, they’ll just assume that date/time is OK with you. And if no one’s home, instead of coming back some other time or rescheduling, they’ll do the work anyway, and leave you to work out the logistics of getting the gas turned back on.

PSE spokesperson Janet Kim told us that you generally should be able to get a crew to come do that same-day. But Kristin didn’t get a call back until this morning – saying that someone would be by sometime before midnight. (We’re waiting to hear back if and when they showed up.)

By the way, while researching this, we learned something we hadn’t heard, despite being PSE gas customers ourselves – like Seattle City Light, PSE is switching to “smart meters.” The map on their website says West Seattle changes will be made this year. But PSE’s Kim says that hasn’t started yet, so that’s not what was done at Kristin’s house.