In the Friday P-I, testy talk turns to whether trees close to power lines were adequately trimmed pre-storm. Elsewhere in the P-I, guest columnist Brenda Peterson, an Alki writer, muses about various aspects of powerlessness, including one we noticed and appreciated as well … how bright the stars seemed, on those streetlight-free nights. Small blessings.

That stretch on and near Fauntleroy, southwest of Morgan Junction, is still out, and now the City Light contingent is gone. One more pocket-let further east appears to be back, though — we just saw outdoor lights on at some of the Webster homes whose residents had been checking in with us (hope it’s good news for ALL of you). Another late-night note: Even if all’s well with your power supply, the city now wants to hear from you about damage to street signs and traffic lights. The phone numbers are here (though, oddly, no e-mail address or web form, which would seem more useful).

About 1,000 City Light “customers” got their power back today, according to a 5 pm radio report that puts the total number remaining at 3,200, and we just confirmed that at least two WS pockets are finally back — 57th off Alki, and that south section of Beach Drive. Passed two major deployments of City Light crews — one at the Beach Drive spot where a tree had blocked the road, the other on the Fauntleroy curve just southwest of Morgan Junction (we never did get around to putting up our weekend photo of crews taking on the tree that caused so much trouble there, so it’s below this post). One troubling spot where no progress is apparent — Delridge at Orchard; two gas stations and a few other businesses still dark, along with homes around them (north of there, Delridge/Brandon is still out too). One last note — a reader who wrote to Councilman Richard Conlin, who heads the committee that’s in charge of utilities, was told that besides the council meeting with City Light and others tomorrow morning, Conlin also is promising a public hearing on Jan. 3.

-As of a few minutes ago: 2 City Light trucks still working at the Morgan Substation, same number at 31st/Kenyon (can only hope that’s good news for the “Webster pocket” nearby).

-If you are in any mood to attempt to laugh about this whole mess (heaven knows WE weren’t until after yesterday’s re-outage), Seattlest points us all to a drily amusing YouTube clip (note the apparent backstory about some people pretending to blame all evils on the recent Google/YouTube, aka GooTube, deal). Subsequently checking YouTube, we found more attempts at outage-related humor, such as this brief bit about the terror of techlessness.

Here’s what we saw: City Light truck briefly stopping on Webster, east of 35th; no crews seen in or around the Fauntleroy/Raymond pocket; a City Light crew parked briefly on Cali near Thriftway, sipping coffee and looking world-weary; plenty of activity near the Alki pocket (along 57th), where we snapped some of the out-of-town crews hired to help City Light (this one is from WAY out of town, note the locale scrawled on the truck’s side):

City Light’s latest online update, timestamped 10 am, says 4,900 customers are still out, 99% of the system is in service, and “the majority of City Light customers will be restored … by midnight.” Well, if you want to be technical about it, the “majority” has been restored for a long time (given a majority is anything past 50%). A reader in the Fauntleroy/Raymond pocket reports being told 17 crews are “in the area” working; we’re going to go see who we find where. One other interesting reader comment this morning, in response to questions about why the mayor hasn’t been making public statements — a reader claims the mayor’s reportedly “been ill.” If anyone knows that for sure, send us a note and we’ll keep it anonymous (which we do anyway with e-mail, as opposed to comments right on the blog, which are automatically anonymous if you choose not to “sign” your name); would love to know why he hasn’t been out in the still-out neighborhoods.

Fascinating tidbits in today’s papers revealing some factors in the slow restoration of power:

–This P-I article says Seattle City Light hadn’t done a fullscale drill (for this type of giant outage) in three years, though the reporter writes, “ironically, one was planned for today.” Really? Four days before Christmas? Same article mentions that the City Council and Seattle City Light bosses have a meeting Friday to start scrutinizing how things worked (and didn’t). Want to let the council know ahead of time what you think? Here’s how.

-Buried in this Times story is an even more revealing tidbit, highlighted below. (So will that change now? Maybe not, as later in the article, the SCL person bemoans the utility’s failure to “outsource” the way Puget Sound Energy does. Though SCL’s apparently “transforming.”)

When the storm struck, about 30 of Seattle City Light’s lineman positions were vacant, largely because of tight budgets, said Chris Heimgartner, the utility’s director of transmission and supply. That’s equivalent to a quarter of the utility’s 28 four-man crews.

A little breezy out there, but nothing close to windstorm quality. Meanwhile, a little bit of driving on the south end of West Seattle reveals that power crews had some success overnight: Morgan Junction is energized again (Ladro, Tully’s, Starbucks, Thriftway, the works, all are lit and open); the iight at 35th/Morgan is back in business; even looks like one of those “laterals” on Gatewood Hill just southeast of Thriftway may have gotten its power back in the process. A stretch of Fauntleroy southwest of M-Junction is still lights-out, though. No sign of any major overnight wind except recycling tubs rolling around on G-Hill.

Guess we weren’t the only ones thinking a traffic cop would be a good idea at Fauntleroy/Cali … one is on the job there now. Otherwise, no progress in the re-outage that’s epicentered just east of the intersection (see midday photo below) … not only is M-Junction dark, so is a significant stretch of Fauntleroy heading southwest from there, plus the big stretch of Beach Drive before and after the original tree blockage. Maybe the re-outage is why City Light’s outage total went up between the early afternoon and late afternoon updates (was 5,300, now 5,900). Some are starting to ask, now that this crisis (and for those without power, it IS a crisis) is almost a week old, where’s the mayor? Especially considering so many of those still without power are right here in his back yard?

Thanks to the reader who mentioned this sign at Highland Park Way & Othello … a few thousand West Seattleites can sympathize:

Thriftway is open (with low lights again, as was the situation during Outage I), but nothing else in that vicinity (poignant little handwritten signs are tacked to most business doors); City Light crews are still working like mad in that blocklet along Morgan on the store’s north side. Also noticed that the re-outage is stretching directly east up Morgan – the light’s out at 35th/Morgan. Elsewhere – for the person who asked about 32nd/Thistle, no problems there, we saw outdoor lights along 32nd in the blocks on both side of Thistle. Some other folks are e-mailing to ask us about their areas; we’ll check them out as quick as we can.

Looks like about half the re-outage area is back on. Heading south on Cali, up the hill, the first sign of power was an outdoor light at Cali & Austin. Morgan Junction businesses, still out. To the east, 35th/Thistle light was back. Someone just left a comment wondering about 32nd/Thistle — when we head out again in a bit, we’ll check that out. And we’ll keep you updated on Morgan Junction, where the substation area is still cordoned off. Funny how this sort of thing changes your mindset; we’ve laughed in the past about suggestions that emergency-preparedness kits make great gifts … just heard that pitch again on the car radio, and now we’re not laughing. At all.

We left our old-school answering machine “on” at home as a way of testing remotely whether the power is back on … just called, it picked up, that could be good news for the Morgan Junction-and-southward re-outage; will pack up and go check in person now …

At an Alki coffeehouse now … apparently there is a powerless pocket near here too; we’ve heard at least three people talking about it, including the very nice gentleman who yielded his table to us (after seeing us wandering sadly around the place looking for an open power outlet).

Back in Morgan Junction and points southward, still no power as of when we left the house again just before 11:30 … that’s two hours re-outaged, and counting. Not sure how far south this stretches, but the 35th & Thistle stoplight is out, and to the north, we didn’t see signs of outagelessness till the first stoplight on Cali Ave north of Fauntleroy (Graham?).

Couple miscellaneous non-outage notes: The Starbucks drive-thru at 35th/Fauntleroy IS open (saw cars going thru as we took a convoluted route to Alki); and if you’re looking for Christmas cheer, there’s a note on the door of Spud Fish & Chips on Alki saying Santa will be visiting 2-4 pm today, tomorrow, and Friday. (Can we go ask Santa for a stable source of electricity, on behalf of all good little Western Washingtonians everywhere?)

We’re currently stationed in The Junction but a friend tells us that power lines are dangling near the Morgan Junction substation (just north of Thriftway), so that may be the culprit. City Light and the fire department are there.

… is, be sure you’re ready for anything tonight. The Weather Service says the wind could have some 40 mph gusts, which might be strong enough to bring down trees left weakened after last week’s Wind Wallop. (The Times sounds even more dire about the whole thing, mentioning possible 50 mph gusts.) We found firestarter logs this morning over at McClendon’s. So we’re set on that front. And given the apparent fragility of the whole power system, we’re darn glad we didn’t stock up on food once the original outage ended in our neighborhood Monday morning … there’s not much in there right now … come to think of it, we better go get a bag of ice just to protect what we DO have.

Just as we were finishing a post ruminating about the possible fragility of the power fixes in the face of the next storm … EVERYTHING WENT OUT AGAIN. Grabbed the laptop and headed out. No power in Morgan Junction; fire engines converging on Thriftway. Not sure what happened. We had seen City Light trucks in the vicinity of the Northrop sinkhole shortly before this … perhaps a planned outage to get somebody else on line? We can only hope? Stand by … sigh …

One less pocket of powerlessness … the trucks we saw on Sullivan in Upper Fauntleroy a few hours ago seem to have achieved success; power to those houses is finally back on. Hope more pockets are on the brink of reconnection; we saw a crew working on Willow, a couple blocks west of Fauntleroy, but no sightings along the eerily dark stretch of 41st (and a few other streets) on the “real” Gatewood Hill, east and uphill from Morgan Junction.