‘Multiple day outage’ says PSE as 501k still without power throughout Western Washington

Over half a million are without power as the Pacific storm moves through Western Washington.

As of 11 p.m. Tuesday, Seattle City Light reported that over 112,648 customers were experiencing outages.

By 5 a.m., Seattle City Light shared, “Our hardworking staff and crews have been able to restore power to nearly 29,000 people overnight. We still have much more work ahead but we appreciate everyone’s patience as we make our way through this tremendous number of outages.”

As of 10 a.m. on Wednesday, 501,851 customers were experiencing outages.

Puget Sound Energy said in a statement early Wednesday morning they have nearly a half million customers without power and expect a “multiple-day outage.”

Severe winds from this evening’s bomb cyclone ripped through western Washington, causing a mass outage event throughout most of our service area, with the biggest impact in King County.

As of 1 a.m. we have 474,032 customers out of power. We anticipate a multiple day outage and encourage customers to make alternate plans as we work to assess the situation and restore power.

We are hearing reports of extensive numbers of downed lines and are urging our customers to never touch or go within 30 feet of downed power lines because they might be energized. Field crews are also seeing many fallen trees, causing blocked roads and restricting access.

Our Emergency Coordination Center and local storm bases are open to support restoration efforts. We have also brought in additional crews from outside of the area to help.

Our first step in restoring power is damage assessment: getting a look at what’s been done to the system and determining the extent of repairs that are needed. The process takes time, especially with the extent of the damage.

We appreciate your patience as we respond to outages with safety as our top priority. As we know more, estimated restoration times will be updated on the outage map at http://ms.spr.ly/6011WsCmz and on the myPSE app.

We are aware of technical issues related to our outage map and have resolved them. Thank you for your patience. Outages that have been reported are being received into the system.

Overall, the state is reporting over 656k without power. Some of the outages are caused by fallen trees, wind and equipment failure.

Public utility companies are reporting issues with their websites.

Snohomish County PUD said that crews have been out preparing for the storm.

“So we’ve been preparing for this storm for two days now. Making sure our trucks are loaded with all the equipment they’ll need to restore power as quickly as they safely can,” said Kellie Stickney, spokesperson for Snohomish Couty PUD. “We’ll even start reaching out to our partner agencies to make sure if we need mutual crews, that we’ve already started those conversations.

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