Tag Archives: blackouts

Windy October night leaves 3,000 without power around Capitol Hill

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"Wind storm knocks over tree on Capitol Hill Cal Anderson Park, Man stripped bare and climbs." (Image: @timdurkan via Twitter)

“Wind storm knocks over tree on Capitol Hill Cal Anderson Park, Man stripped bare and climbs.” (Image: @timdurkan via Twitter)

B01-Se4IcAAjBVjAn October windstorm knocked out power to around 3,000 customers in a northern swath of Capitol Hill near Volunteer Park Saturday night.

The outages were part of a series of service disruptions around the city leaving more than 20,000 without power.

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The largest outage surrounding the park was reportedly caused by a downed branch or tree. A smaller outage knocking about 600 out had a reported restoration time of after 11 PM. City Light estimated a midnight or later restoration for the larger outage.

The outages followed an increase in the night’s gusts around 8 PM. Winds on the 520 bridge measured above 60 MPH.

Around 8:04 PM, wires were reported down on 20th Ave E. Continue reading →

Capitol Hill’s power grid ready to meet surprisingly low demands of development boom

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There are at least 25 new buildings on Capitol Hill waiting for a Seattle City Light hookups and new requests are coming in about once a month.

Despite all that development in a relatively small area, City Light officials tell CHS the biggest challenge isn’t actually meeting the demand for power, which the neighborhood grid is well equipped to handle. Instead, the biggest challenge is the complicated scheduling and manpower required to move electrical poles and lines to make way for new construction and provide hook-ups when construction crews need it. Continue reading →

Power outage hits 500 customers in Broadway-Pike/Pine core

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The outage as of 4:30 PM showed 486 customers without power in the area. You can see the latest updated system status here.

The outage as of 4:30 PM showed 486 customers without power in the area. You can see the latest updated system status here.

Bars, cafes, restaurants, apartments and traffic signals were dark Tuesday afternoon into early evening after an equipment failure knocked out power to around 500 customers.

According to Seattle City Light, an “overhead line cutout” failed in the area. The current restoration estimate is 7 PM but we’ve seen pretty quick restoration on similar failures in the area.

There was a report of a boom heard by some around 4 PM when the outage began.

If you’re wondering if your favorite restaurant or bar in the Broadway-Pike/Pine core is open, best to check social media.

UPDATE 7:35 PM: Power is restored for man but just under 300 customers remain without and the City Light estimate has been rolled back to 10 PM.

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