Alert for people who live near, and/or use, Lowman Beach Park – King County has just announced that three weeks of sewer-maintenance work at Murray Pump Station – which is underneath the park – will start next Tuesday (NOT a week later, as previously announced). Read on for full text of the announcement:Read More

(Scroll down for latest update – thanks to everyone who called/texted/e-mailed when this started!)
ORIGINAL 2:38 PM REPORT: Getting reports including Seaview and Morgan. Also central Beach Drive. 2750 homes and businesses. Seattle City Light has crews en route but says they don’t know yet what’s wrong.

2:47 PM: City Light’s online update has increased that to 2,814. It’s NOT affecting us here in upper Fauntleroy – we were just on a story in Sunrise Heights and all was well there too. But the “Alki” description SCL has is not entirely accurate. Let us know if you’re off or on.

3:04 PM UPDATE: Added photo of powerless stoplight at California/Graham in Morgan Junction (next to a long-shuttered landmark of sorts). Note the comments for ongoing reports on the boundaries of the outage – we’ve got some Admiral, some Alki, some Morgan Junction. Nothing south of MJ so far. Some areas apparently flickered (like Arbor Heights) at the time it started, but stayed on – while others went out and are still out. But northward, we’ve got Alki Point and Admiral Junction, among others. Apparently east West Seattle is OK. The official start time of the outage, per City Light, was 2:26 pm.

3:26 PM UPDATE: Just checked with Scott Thomsen at City Light, now that we’re an hour into the outage. He says two crews are out “running the lines,” trying to trace the outage’s cause/source, but haven’t found it yet, so they can’t say how long till the power’s back on. He confirms that the southernmost reports have come from south Morgan Junction (SW Holly).

3:47 PM UPDATE: City Light has a cause now – trash truck hit a tree, knocking the tree into power lines. They say they hope to have most back by 4 pm, everyone by 8:30 pm. Let us know when you get it back. P.S. We’ve gone to The Junction to check – though there are points south and north that are out, Junction is OK.

3:52 PM: Getting reports of power coming back on in various areas – so let us know if a little while elapses and you’re still OUT. (added) P.S. – Doug just sent this photo of what we believe to be THE truck vs. tree scene – 49th/Raymond:

4:26 PM: Another quick update from City Light – more than 500 homes/businesses who don’t have their power yet should have it back by 6:30 pm.

Thanks to Aaron for the tip: A small power outage has affected several establishments on the east side of California, north of Admiral Way. He says it had something to do with a transformer problem behind Admiral Pub. Looks like that’s one of three businesses affected, along with Yen Wor and Brickyard; we just went in and checked – Admiral Pub is empty right now, Yen Wor is open, waiting for “an hour or two” to see what happens,” and Brickyard is open but, a Twitter tipster also says, serving drinks, not food, and “cash only.” They say they were told the power may not return before midnight; we’re checking with City Light. (The other side of the street is NOT affected.)

Thanks to MargL for the tip that the California/Oregon stoplight is out. (Also thanks to those who messaged us about it via Twitter.) No word at this point if it’s part of a larger outage; we’re checking. Earlier this afternoon, according to a note we received from Craig, there was a small outage in Admiral:

A crow got a little too close to the primary and secondary terminals on the transformer between Fairmount Ave SW and Walnut Ave SW alley close to Hanford St. There were about six customers that were without power for about 35 minutes. The Seattle City Light Crew was here in 28 minutes. That’s GREAT.

(Craig included a photo of the crow atop its final resting place; we’ll just let it be.)

(Scroll down for morning update on suspected cause)
9:50 PM: Getting multiple reports via e-mail, Twitter, Facebook of power flickers – and apparently at least one actual outage in Highland Park. Checking.

9:57 PM UPDATE: Reported outages include areas of High Point, Fairmount Park, Highland Park. As pointed out by Pete in comments, and shown on the 911 log, there’s a transformer fire reported in the 8100 block of 1st Avenue South, which is between West Seattle and South Park (map) by Highway 509. P.S. If you’re in south West Seattle – those are the White Center Jubilee Days fireworks you’re hearing right now (we can hear them in Upper Fauntleroy, *not* something related to this.)

10:18 PM UPDATE: City Light’s official update calls this a “large” outage in West Seattle, but doesn’t yet list a cause. Still checking.

10:45 PM UPDATE: Just got a call back from City Light media liaison. They still don’t know what caused this, he says, so they don’t know how soon it will be fixed. Crews are currently out following the trail of the outage, which affects about 900 homes/businesses right now (large area but spotty in its effects, as we saw while driving around looking). He says the system “tried to right itself by cycling” – but it “locked out” and “the circuit remained open.” We’ll keep checking for updates.

10:54 PM UPDATE: Getting some reports of power coming back on. Let us know if yours was out but has returned.

11:27 PM UPDATE: Still no official word on the cause – we’ll see what we can find out from the SCL communications team in the morning. But more people have reported getting their power back.

12:03 AM UPDATE: … but not everybody, as comments indicate – part of Highland Park is still out of power.

1:09 AM UPDATE: Paula just texted to say the outage continues in her part of eastern WS. City Light has now briefly mentioned the outage here, but no new info.

1:44 AM UPDATE: And after about four hours, that area’s back too, according to another text just received from Paula. (Thanks again to everyone for sharing news on what’s happening where you are!)

8:11 AM UPDATE: City Light says it believes the outage was caused by a tree/power line conflict in the greenbelt near 4th SW/Cloverdale (northeast of West Seattle Reservoir).

WSB went to Rainier Beach on Thursday afternoon to see Councilmember Bruce Harrell and Seattle City Light officials announce the expansion of “Powerful Neighborhoods” – the door-to-door energy-efficiency-and-safety installation/advice program first mentioned here in March. The briefing happened during a training session for program workers. They’ve been visiting homes in certain target areas, with an emphasis on low-income, senior-citizen, and primary-language-other-than-English residents, but offering service to anyone interested. Their consultations have included CFL light bulbs, faucet aerator and smoke detector installation, plus offering low-flow showerheads; now they’re adding to their repertoire – checking for toilet leaks (which can waste hundreds of dollars in water/sewer bills each year) and inefficient dryer vents, as demonstrated by program manager Andy Silber in our video clip:

If you live in 98106 or 98126, you may find one of the canvassers at your door soon. City Light contracts with two nonprofits to go door-to-door for this program. So far, the utility says, they’ve worked in almost 2,000 homes/apartments. By the end of this year, City Light hopes that number will grow to 10,000. The program has $500,000 in federal stimulus money and $1.2 million in city money, with a federal grant paying for the smoke detectors through the state Health Department.

Thanks to Paige for the tip (via Facebook) that some power is out in The Junction. We’re up there looking around and so far all we’re seeing is the traffic lights at California/Oregon and 42nd/Oregon. There’s a crew on scene so we’ll check with them. 9:20 PM UPDATE: We’re told a transformer on a pole in the alley behind Shoofly Pie is to blame for the outage. It’s just affecting that block – east side of California north of Oregon, that area. Crews are working on it (as our photo shows).

(Photo courtesy daPuffin, added Thursday night)
Seattle City Light has explained the short outage last night that a few people have e-mailed to ask us about: According to Scott Thomsen, about 80 homes were without electricity for just under an hour because of a pole fire. The incident is on last night’s archived 911 log as “wires down” in the 3100 block of SW 105th (map). P.S. This is being discussed in the WSB Forums, with an added detail: “Fried bird.”

Looks like that first short garbage strike was the last one. Our regional-news partners at the Seattle Times report there’s a tentative settlement in the contract dispute between Waste Management – which handles solid waste for our area among many others – and Teamsters Local 174. No details of the deal yet, but Local 174’s members will vote on it Sunday.

4:41 PM: The Waste Management truck drivers who went on strike yesterday are reported to be offering to return – here’s the latest from our regional-news partners at the Seattle Times. That’s led Seattle Public Utilities to issue this update:

Based on reports that striking Teamsters will return to work, Seattle Public Utilities is advising its Friday customers to put out their garbage, yard waste and recycling before 7 tomorrow morning.

Customers whose collections were missed due to the strike on Wednesday and Thursday may set out up to twice their garbage, yard waste and recycling on their next regular collection day, at no additional cost. Missed recycling should be set out on customers’ next recycling day, which would be in two weeks.

SPU will provide updates as needed. Customers with solid waste service problems may call the Call Center at (206) 684-3000.

6:12 PM: The Times story is updated now, and Waste Management is saying it welcomes the workers back. In addition, the two sides will resume talks on Monday.

Though West Seattle’s next major wave of potential effects won’t hit until Monday (after some missed pickups here yesterday), if you’re keeping track, the city followed up last night’s “Thursday pickups, put your trash out” advisory with a “no Thursday pickups after all” advisory this morning. Waste Management is also keeping day-by-day updates on its website – no trash or recyclables today, but they advise customers they can put out up to twice the normal amount on their next pickup day. They have said they intend to bring in replacement drivers, but a WM spokesperson told the Seattle Times (WSB partner) that their contingency plan would take a few days to be up and running. No word so far of any new negotiations.