UPDATE 10:51 PM:
A Seattle City Light work crew waited tonight along Lakeview Blvd as preparations were made to re-route power around damaged wires running through a stand of trees just below St. Mark’s. The outage affected more than 3,000 customers at times during the evening across Capitol Hill and Eastlake. City Light reported that around 900 are currently without power.
Once the switches have been thrown and City Light is done documenting the temporary re-gridding, an arborist will work to remove the fallen tree branches and the work crew will be able to begin repair of the downed wires.
Traveling up Bellevue Ave is to be plunged into darkness. The street around the Lookout bar is pitch black with only the light of the #14 bus providing illumination for people wandering the streets. Candles can be seen burning in apartment windows. Many people were out for a stroll under a starry Seattle night sky. Where was this outage last week during the Perseid meteor shower?
ORIGINAL REPORT:
Getting word of a major power outage on Capitol Hill this evening starting after 5p. Power is off at homes, businesses and intersections from Allison to Mercer and Minor to 13th Ave.
City light reports more than 3,200 customers were without power. No word on cause yet.
View Power Outage 8/19/09 in a larger map
Also have a report from the EastlakeAve blog that power is out in Eastlake.
I have no power @ 1004 Belmont ave e
… And Twitter is down!!!
I’m right in the middle of the approximate area on that map and my power has been fine. E Roy @ Boylston.
tks. i think mapping withy polygons isn’t going to work. getting similar reports.
same here: all systems go at 10th and Harrison
(according to SCL community relations)
“The power outage that began at 5 p.m. this evening has been partially restored. However, 2,750 customers remain without electricity while crews make repairs. A tree fell and took down a main distribution line which feeds power to the northwest Capital Hill neighborhood. Crews will attempt to switch around the down wires to bring power to more homes throughout the evening. Final repairs will not be completed until 3a.m., Thursday. The boundaries of the power outage are: on the north, E. Allison St; on the south, E. Mercer St.; on the east, 13th Ave E and on the west, Minor Ave E.”
Old trees tend to fail when it’s hot and they haven’t had enough water. But you would think that last week’s rain would have replenished them.
There’s plenty that would’ve been too far gone after the weeks and weeks they went without rain. We’ve had a couple of decent storms, but I think they were too late to make a difference for some of our arboreal friends.