A downed wire and potential outage culprit near 20th and E John (Photo: Andrew Taylor)
A power outage shut off traffic lights and residential electricity for an estimated 3,400 customers around Capitol Hill and parts of the Central District Saturday afternoon. According to Seattle City Light, the outage was caused by at least one downed distribution wire near 20th Ave E and E Thomas. SCL officials said power would be restored around 9:30 PM.
Residents started reporting outages on social media around 4:30 PM. The boundaries of outage were between Mercer and Pine, and between 22 Ave and I-5. Not all customers in the area were affected.
You can check SCL’s outage map and service updates here.
UPDATE: As of 9:30 PM, the outage is down to around 1,900 customers — but there’s some bad news for the eastern-most blob on the map of around 440 customers: The new restoration time for that area is close to 1 AM. The restoration estimate for the other 1,400 and change to the west is currently categorized as “pending.” No worries! Tonight is the supermoon! 9:42 PM: City Light reports power is back for all but those unlucky 440: “Crews have encountered more damage around the 20th and John location. Estimate restoring for the final 440 customers around 1 am”
Crap. Estimated time of power coming back on was just updated to 1am for our blob. http://t.co/oRKWugoK18 #dark #quiet #scared @jseattle
— Anthony Hecht (@ahecht) August 10, 2014
Finally on at 1:45 am for our segment. After a little frustrated tuffle in the street.
tuffle? What happened?
I’m sorry for your inconveniences (the outage stopped 1 block from me), but it was pretty interesting to go around and look at the “city” without any lights. it was very peaceful.