White Center Now: The blog about White Center

Just announced by Seattle City Light:

Thanks to the generous contributions of Seattle City Light customers, seven local organizations will receive Green Up grants totaling nearly $1 million to support renewable energy projects and education. The seven organizations will use the grants to help install solar panels at 14 public school, affordable housing, and community-based locations.

“Over 13,000 generous community members are investing in a clean, sustainable energy future by sending a few dollars each month to purchase renewable energy credits through our Green Up program,” said City Light Customer Energy Solutions Director Craig Smith. “City Light is proud to be the steward of this grant and part of the community partnership that will benefit our schools, affordable housing, parks, and hospitals.”

Grant recipients are:

· Seattle Public Schools – $150,000 for solar installations at Bailey Gatzert Elementary, Ballard High School, Denny International Middle School, South Shore K-8 School, Hazel Wolf K-8 ESTEM School and Arbor Heights Elementary
· King County Parks — $119,014 for a solar installation at the Steve Cox Community Center
· Seattle Parks — $50,000 for a solar installation at the Brig at Magnuson Park
· Seattle Colleges — $200,000 for a solar installation at Seattle Central College
· Harborview Medical Center — $50,000 for a solar installation at the hospital
· Capitol Hill Housing – three grants totaling $225,000 for solar installations at three affordable housing complexes – the Elizabeth James House, Ponderosa Apartments and El Nor Apartments
· Pacific Science Center — $164,851 for a solar installation at the center

“We will soon be able to power the White Center community center and the adjacent basketball court using only clean, renewable energy,” King County Executive Dow Constantine said. “Our partnership with Seattle City Light will accelerate the work we are doing to transform Steve Cox Memorial Park into a model for sustainable operations.”

Thanks to Jim for the photo. He noticed the water in the road in front of the White Center Library and has reported it to Seattle Public Utilities, which was sending a crew to check it out. Jim says the water turned up tonight in a spot where he noticed a new bump in the road a day earlier.

Power went out for more than 2,000 homes and businesses in parts of White Center, South Park, and West Seattle at 11:19 am. Seattle City Light says a crash caused it; some traffic lights, including 8th/Roxbury (which is dangerous enough when the signal’s working), are out, so please remember that means they’re all-way stops until restored. SCL hopes to have this fixed by 2:30-ish pm.

(Click image to go to full-size map on City Light’s website)

Those locations in White Center, Top Hat, and other parts of North Highline are where Seattle City Light is about to begin a six-week project “to upgrade electronic equipment on 35 existing utility poles.” More details:

This project is an expansion of existing communications networks. The equipment modifications will increase public safety and enhanced-911 capabilities. The work will also improve wireless services to areas, allowing for enhanced connectivity and faster 4G service.

During this project, City Light crews will also have the opportunity to upgrade its infrastructure and replace utility poles that are in poor condition.

There are no maintenance power outages planned for this work. Some traffic and parking impacts are expected in the immediate work areas. Crews will be careful to maintain access to driveways.

4:55 AM: Power is out for what Seattle City Light‘s outage map says are 2,000+ homes/businesses, including parts of White Center and South Park. No word yet on the cause; restoration is estimated at 11 am but we always remind you, that’s just SCL’s guess, could be earlier, could be later. And please remember if you are driving before the power’s back on – any signalized intersection where the signal’s out or flashing means it’s an all-ways stop.

6:14 AM: The outage is now down to 240 customers, mostly in north Greenbridge. “Equipment failure” is now listed as the cause.

9:59 AM: Most of this – but not all – is south of White Center: 3,868 homes/businesses have lost power in the greater Highline area. See the map here.

10:50 AM: Outage over, per SCL map. The wind advisory remains in effect through 3 pm, though.

Though the wind still hasn’t revved up that much, the power went out at 1:49 am for 3,783 customers (homes/businesses), mostly in Burien but also stretching into part of North Highline, particularly Top Hat. City Light’s map has yet to pinpoint what caused it; the guesstimate for restoration is currently 8 am.

4:15 AM: Outage over, per SCL map.

As of 4:27 pm, power is out to more than 7,700 homes and businesses in Seattle City Light service area in parts of North Highline (map above from SCL website) and Burien (plus a few pockets of southeast West Seattle). No word yet on the cause. SCL is offering the guesstimate of 11 pm for restoration, but that is just a guesstimate, could be much earlier or much later. Note that assuming SCL’s map is accurate, downtown White Center is NOT affected – this is mostly south of 102nd.

5:28 PM UPDATE: The SCL map now blames “tree” for outage. Restoration guesstimate has updated to 11:25 pm.

6:13 PM UPDATE: SCL now says via Twitter “crews have now determined that the cause was due to a broken utility pole crossarm near the Duwamish Substation.”

6:47 PM UPDATE: About half of the original outage has been restored.

6:52 PM: And now all but ~500 are back on.

SUNDAY MORNING: According to the City Light map, everyone had power restored at some point very early this morning.

(Map of outage area, from Seattle City Light website)

12:56 AM: More than 3,500 homes/businesses are without power in parts of White Center and southeast West Seattle, according to Seattle City Light‘s outage map. No word yet on the cause.

1:33 AM UPDATE: 90 percent of those who lost power got it back around 1:15 am, after about 45 minutes. City Light’s map still shows almost 300 homes/businesses in White Center still without power:

Commenters here and on our partner site West Seattle Blog have mentioned the utility/emergency response centered at 8th/Roxbury; here’s what SCl just tweeted about the cause:

6:30 AM: Power has since been fully restored to the entire affected area.

2:06 AM: That’s the Seattle City Light map for an outage that started about 15 minutes ago, with reports of flashes and booms. It’s affecting more than 4,300 homes and businesses so far, mostly south of downtown White Center, as you can see on the map. We’re monitoring to see what caused it and when SCL hopes to get power restored – the estimates on the outage-info map are generally just guesstimates until they find the cause.

3:08 AM: Still no word on the cause but about one-third of those originally affected now have power back – it’s now down to 2,695 customers.

3:42 PM: Most have been back on for some time but City Light spokesperson Scott Thomsen says about 10 percent of those originally affected remain out – he also updated us on the cause: “A tree fell into wires, which caused a fault current that was big enough that it damaged some of the wire. So crews have been working to replace the damaged wire. There are about 450 customers still out. We estimate having them back in service around 4:15 pm.”

Most of the affected area is in West Seattle so we’re covering it for now on our partner site West Seattle Blog.

3:37 PM: Thanks to the person who texted to let us know about the power outage in downtown White Center and vicinity – 262 homes and businesses, according to the Seattle City Light map. We’re checking on the cause.

4:12 PM UPDATE: City Light’s map does not seem to be accurate – we just drove down 16th and 17th SW downtown and saw illuminated OPEN signs on both sides of both streets.

7:12 PM UPDATE: The outage is entirely over now, according to the online map. We’ll be asking SCL tomorrow about the cause.

(Above, the White Center/Top Hat section of the outage)

2:08 AM: Thanks to Alisha for the tip: The Seattle City Light map confirms a big power outage – in two distinct areas, primarily east White Center, Top Hat, and north/northwest Burien. More than 3,500 customers (homes and businesses) are affected. No word yet what caused it; it started around 1:45 am. We’ll update when we find out more.

2:46 AM: Most of the Burien customers have their power back, according to SCL. Still no word on the cause.

4:36 AM: The cause is now listed on SCL’s site as “tree.” No elaboration. And the number of customers out of power is down to just under 700.

UPDATE: Here’s the final word from City Light (with whom we’ll follow up on Monday to find out about WHERE the tree went into the lines):

Seattle City Light is working on a power outage that involves almost 8,000 homes and businesses. White Center is largely spared but the SCL outage map shows areas out to the east and south, including parts of Top Hat and Boulevard Park as well as Burien. No official estimate yet for how soon it will be fixed.

Maybe you’ve seen the sign warning about lane closures at 15th/Roxbury next week; we heard about it through a reader tip. That led us to chase down details, and the King County Department of Transportation tells us it’s part of a more-extensive project:

King County has issued a permit for fiber optic installation on 15th Avenue Southwest between Roxbury Street and 107th Avenue Southwest, moving east on 107th Avenue Southwest and then south along 12th Avenue Southwest to Southwest 114th Street in the White Center area. Most of this work will involve attaching fiber to existing utility poles, so traffic disruptions should be minimal with possible intermittent lane closures.

There is more extensive work being planned at the intersection of 15th Avenue Southwest and Roxbury that will involve 200 feet of underground installation taking up to five days, half in the city, half in King County. That more intensive work will require the closure of one southbound through lane on 15th Avenue Southwest north of Roxbury and a northbound left turn lane on 15th Avenue Southwest at Roxbury. Work is planned 9 am to 3 pm weekdays March 2 through March 6. Traffic control will be in place around the work zone.

11:16 AM: Major parts of North Highline are caught up in another widespread power outage – more than 9,000 homes and businesses in all, according to Seattle City Light, which is currently projecting restoration around mid-afternoon. See the latest map of the outage locations here. (Screen grab above was taken from that same page just before 11 am.)

11:58 AM: Per City Light, everyone’s back on. (If you’re not, please let them know!)

(Screengrab of City Light map added 9:49 pm – yes, it looks a lot like the one from early today!)
No power? You’re not alone. We’re getting reports from Shorewood and part of White Center that power is out again – as of this writing Seattle City Light still doesn’t have the full scope of it on its map, but we have multiple reports it’s linked to a crash. We’re en route to the location to verify.

UPDATE: City Light also verifies the crash is to blame, at 10th/116th. We have just arrived in the area. Traffic signals are out at 16th/112th and 16th/116th, so if you have to drive in the area, please remember to treat nonfunctioning signals as four-way stops. 4,200 customers are without power, according to the customer hotline.

2ND UPDATE: Now it’s on the City Light map, as of 9:40 pm. We also have learned from sheriff’s deputies that 2 people were hurt in the crash and taken to the hospital. Too dangerous because of downed pole to get close, so we only have a photo of North Highline Fire District crew standing by:

3RD UPDATE: City Light says crews are routing power and should get it back to most “within the hour” (which would be, by 11 pm). And we’re starting to hear from people who indeed are connected again.

1:35 AM: City Light map shows 1200+ customers still out of power. We’ve also learned that Seattle Police are investigating the crash that started it. We hope to learn a lot more about that later this morning.

(Screengrab from Seattle City Light map)
12:53 AM: Shortly after major rain started to fall, power went out to a wide area including part of White Center. The Seattle City Light outage map shows more than 4,200 homes/businesses are out of power. So far, no cause listed – just that SCL is “investigating” – but at least one tipster reports big lightning preceded it.

1:30 AM: City Light says it’s restored power to about a third of the customers affected, leaving about 2,600 without electricity.

2:02 AM: And now, fewer than 1,000 still without power.

6 AM: Almost 600, mostly in the South Park area, remain without power.

(Crossposted from partner site West Seattle Blog)

(Looks like the early-morning outage map, but this is the NEW one)
If you were up for the two-hour power outage in the middle of the night – because the footprint is just about the same. About 2,000 homes and businesses are without power right now, according to the City Light map, in White Center as well as parts of West Seattle and South Park. City Light explains:

A large tree fell into wires near Highland Park Way SW and SW Othello Street. It broke several of the tie wires that keep the power lines attached to the insulators on the poles.

Crews are working to reroute power around the damage. This will bring about 75 percent of the affected customers back into service in the next 60-90 minutes.

Crews will then remove the tree and re-hang the wires in order to restore service to the remaining customers. We estimate being able to get that done about 5 p.m.

We’ve heard some are getting power back already, as we publish this.

On this stormy night, more than 2,000 homes and businesses are without power in White Center, South Park, and eastern West Seattle. City Light‘s map shows the extent but does not mention a specific cause yet, saying only as of right now, “investigating.”

5:13 AM UPDATE: SCL now says a tree is to blame for the outage.

6:06 AM UPDATE: The map now shows everyone’s back on (please let us know if you’re not!).