UPDATE 6:57 PM: Reports of restored power on Capitol Hill are streaming back in. As you were, folks. Below, what we know about what happened. In the meantime, we’re told some of our friends in Eastlake remain in the dark. City Light says it has “rerouted” power around the outage area leaving only just more than 600 customers without juice.

UPDATE 7:54 PM: City Light says the number of customers without power in Eastlake and near Volunteer Park will fluctuate as the reroute power during the work on the downed feeder wire. As of 7:50 PM, just under 3,000 were without power in the area. City Light expects to have the work wrapped up by 1 AM.

UPDATE 11:47 PM: Eastlake and others got their power back just after 11 PM. City Light says the cause of the outage was a power line that broke “due to age.” CHS can identify with that power line.

Original report: Downed wires in the Eastlake neighborhood proceeded a widespread outage in the area affecting swaths of Capitol Hill including Broadway north of Harrison and and areas south of 19th and John.

The outage is yet to appear on City Light’s system status page. City Light outage numbers are (206) 684-3000 or (206) 684-7400.

We have unconfirmed report that City Light is currently providing customers with an estimate restoration time of 4 AM. We’ll try to confirm. Typically, City Light’s estimates are pretty safe and the department tends to “under-promise, over-deliver.” UPDATE: City Light says that more than 6,000 customers are without power but that a cause has not yet been determined.

Some areas are patchy with service with reports like 10th Ave between Roy and Aloha which were reported as without power even while surrounding blocks were lit.

The outage has included traffic lights at many intersections and, inconveniently, the access system to at least one Broadway apartment building where arriving residents were locked outside.

The initial response from Seattle Fire to downed at 2837 Franklin Ave E was first reported around 5:45 PM. Two booms and flashes of light were reported in the area during the downed wire response.

SFD has been busy during the outage with one incident at E Mercer’s Lowell Elementary turning out to be a boiler problem and a report of light haze inside a Bellevue Ave apartment building that turned out to be smoke from a nearby overheated electrical transformer. In the meantime, a swarm of elevator rescue calls have come in from people in stuck lifts across the outage areas.

Monday’s outage is the second major power disruption to hit the area in recent weeks despite mostly calm weather. Early on December 23rd, three booms proceeded an outage that knocked 3,700 customers offline for around six hours.