Seattle City Light says that one outage occurred around 11:30 p.m.

The exact cause is unknown, but power was restored to the Home Headquarters of The B-Town Blog in the Three Tree Point neighborhood just before 6:30 a.m.

Crews are responding to identify the exact locations, assess causes, and make repairs.

Customers can get outage information online at www.seattle.gov/light/sysstat.

Because of this we have had to limit our updating. Once we get power back we’ll resume regular postings.

Please check our Facebook page for further updates/info and Comments:

www.facebook.com/btownblog

We’re one of them, and we’ll try to update the blog from our mobile devices, but don’t count on it!

Seattle City Light experienced multiple outages throughout its service territory, starting about 11:15 a.m. Sunday, Dec. 25, when a cold front moved through the area causing wind gusts of 50 mph. At the peak of the windstorm approximately 18,000 customers were without power.

PREVIOUSLY: BTB Reader Carrie Baggaley Rasmussen texted us these pics, taken by her husband Justin, of a large tree down across SW 152nd near the Ruth Dykeman Center, felled by a Christmas Day storm, which also caused scattered power outages in the Burien area.

As you can see in the foreground, a car was also damaged by a fallen telephone pole.

Seattle City Light says that more than 7,000 homes and businesses were affected by the storm, with some of the largest outages in the SeaTac and Burien area – here’s a map showing the outages:

“Crews are responding to identify the exact locations and causes of the outages and then will make repairs,” City Light said in a statement.

Customers can get outage information online at www.seattle.gov/light/sysstat.

If you have any photos of other storm damage, please email us and we’ll try to post them (in-between eating and visiting with family…).

“We will come to your house with free CFLs, showerheads and faucet aerators,” reads a statement on their website. “We will install the CFLs and leave behind the showerhead and faucet aerator for you to install. To qualify, you must live in a single–family home or 2–4 unit apartment/condo in the parts of Burien, White Center, North Highline, SeaTac, Tukwila, and Skyway served by Seattle City Light, and the northern part of the Central District.”

Here are some of the FREE products Seattle City Light is offering:

To make an appointment, call 206–449–1132 or send an email to SCL_install@seattle.gov

Here’s more info on City Light’s Powerful Neighborhoods program:

The Powerful Neighborhoods program is a pilot program designed to reach customers who may not have taken advantage of our energy conservation programs in the past. These customers include senior citizens, non-English-speaking households and low-income customers.

We hope that by offering to make home visits and providing energy-saving products, we can educate customers about energy conservation and motivate them to take actions to save money and electricity.

Seattle City Light is working with Ecos Consulting, Cascadia Consulting, Environmental Coalition of South Seattle (ECOSS), and the Working Green to hire and train installers, schedule home visits, provide translations, and deliver and install the products.

All installers have undergone background checks and drug-screening. Installers fluent in Spanish, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Amharic, Cantonese and other languages will be available to visit homes where those languages are primarily spoken.

This project received funding support from the Federal Government under the American Recovery and Revitalization Act (ARRA)

In 2010 The Powerful Neighborhoods program successfully served more than 7,000 homes in south Seattle, installing more than 130,000 compact fluorescent light bulbs, reducing energy consumption by more than 24 million kWh and saving our customers more than $2.2 million on their energy bills.

Thursday’s powerful windstorm knocked out power to some 2,840 residents in the Burien/Normandy Park neighborhoods.

According to Seattle City Light, power went out around 6:30pm and was restored for most customers around 7:30pm.

City Light says the boundaries of the Burien outage were:

• On the north: S 96th St.
• On the south: SW 172nd St
• On the east: 24th Ave S.
• On the west, 33rd Ave SW

Not all customers within these boundaries were affected.

Crews are working to restore the few outages that remain.

For up-to-date outage info, check this City Light website out: http://powerlines.seattle.gov

BTB Reader Ed Dacy sent us the following shellphone cellphone pic, which he took last Sunday (Jan 30th) of a dead Seagull that apparently landed on a transformer and knocked out power near Elmer’s Pub, at the intersection of SW 151st and Ambaum Blvd. SW:

“There was a loud pop, then the lights went out at the building in which Elmer’s is located,” Ed said. “City Light showed up in about 30 minutes and said it probably was a crow on the transformer. The bartender told them to look at their feet. They saw the Seagull and said that’s different – it’s a Seagull all right.”

The Seagull’s identity has not yet been released, pending notification of next of kin, but there’s a good chance the victim was someone’s Gullfriend, so please be careful what kinds of Comments you leave below.

We’re not sure who cawed this incident in, and City Light would not say whether the bird’s family would be given a Bill for the on-scene crew fees incurred by the outage.

We’re also unsure who disposed of the body, but we are pretty sure that Burien’s new Animal Control did not show up.

No word yet on when or where a memorial service will be held, but expect to see some kind of tribute at Elmer’s Pub.

City Light contractors have been doing inspections around the Puget Sound area since a dog was killed when it stepped on an energized groundcover plate in Queen Anne in November.

The latest discoveries bring the total number of streetlights found with contact voltage to 25.

Crews immediately cut off power and started repairs. There were no injuries.

The three local hotspots are:

• 12841 Shorewood Dr SW, Burien, 31 volts, deteriorated wiring was found, power was cut off, repairs pending
• 12854 Shorewood Dr SW, Burien, 31 volts, deteriorated wiring was repaired
• 12882 Shorecrest Dr SW, Burien, 50 volts, a faulty lamp fixture was discovered, power was cut off, repairs pending

Here’s a map showing the Burien hotspots:

View City Light Streetlights with Voltage in a larger map
The inspections are part of City Light’s ongoing safety testing and repair efforts on all its 30,000 metal streetlight poles and nearby metal facilities.

After a dog was killed when it stepped on an electrified groundcover plate in Queen Anne, City Light initiated testing of all of its metal streetlight poles and related metal equipment.

Two contractors – Davey Resources Group and Power Survey Co. – are conducting the testing.

The contractors have tested about 12,500 pieces of equipment or about 42 percent of the total. Areas where testing has been completed include Seattle Center, Downtown, SODO, Capitol Hill, First Hill, West Seattle, Madrona and Tukwila.

The industry average for contact voltage potential with a metal streetlight pole is 0.3 percent. City Light’s findings are 0.2 percent.

Blair Sorrel, Founder of StreetZaps.com, said:

“Contact voltage is a chronic hidden hazard that can readily victimize an unsuspecting dog, walker, or both. No dog lover could possibly observe a more horrifying scene than witnessing his beloved pet instantaneously maimed or tragically electrocuted. When you exercise your pooch, please exercise greater prudence. Common outdoor electrical and metal fixtures may shock or even kill your vulnerable dog. And depending upon the current, the walker will be bitten and like poor Aric Roman, suffer permanently. But you can, indeed, self-protect.

Just start to adopt this simple strategy — EYEBALL THE BLOCK, AND AVOID A SHOCK. Take a few seconds and make your trajectory toward generally safer, free standing, non-conductive surfaces, ie., plastic, wood, cardboard. Intuit your dog’s cues and if it’s resistant, change directions. Work site perimeters may be live so try to elude them. If necessary, switch sides of the street or your hands when leading to skirt hazards. If you traverse the same route, you may memorize locations of potential dangers. Carry your pooch when in doubt. Consider indoor restroom products like PottyPark when external conditions are chancy or RopeNGo’s hardware-free leash and harness. And don’t rely on dog booties as a palliative as they will actually put your pet at even greater risk since the dog can’t tell you they’re leaking! To learn to more, please see StreetZaps. A safer walk is yours year round if you are willing to open to your eyes and mind to it.”

Some of the other locations where the latest contact voltage was discovered include:

WHITE CENTER:

• 1721 SW Roxbury Street, 111 volts, a faulty ballast assembly was replaced.

WEST SEATTLE/ARBOR HEIGHTS:

• SW Avalon Way and 35th Avenue SW, 104 volts, bad wiring was repaired.
• SW Holly Street and 31st Avenue SW, 107 volts, a faulty lamp head was replaced.
• 4115 SW Arroyo Drive, 84 volts, a faulty ballast assembly was replaced.
• SW Arroyo Drive and 39th Avenue SW, 98 volts, power was disconnected, repairs pending.
• Near 56^th Avenue SW and SW Bradford Street with 103 volts. A crew repaired a connector that was touching the pole and energizing it.
• Near Fauntleroy Way SW and SW Edmunds Street with 97 volts. Power was cut off and crews are determining the cause to begin work on a repair.
• A streetlight cover near Marine View Drive SW and 42^nd Avenue SW with 84 volts. Power was cut off and crews are determining the cause to begin work on a repair.

SEATTLE:

• 4427 Airport Way S, 32 volts, a faulty lamp fixture was replaced.
• E James and 32nd Avenue, 98 volts, bad wiring was replaced.
• E Spruce and 32nd Avenue, 35 volts, a bad connection was found and all connections were replaced.
• E Yesler Way and 28th Avenue, 41 volts, a bad wiring connection was found, power was disconnected, repairs pending.
• 12th Avenue S and S Jackson Street, 100 volts, frayed wiring was repaired.
• A streetlight pole near 12^th Avenue S and S Jackson Street with 100 volts. A crew found frayed wiring that was energizing the pole’s ground wire. Temporary repairs were made to ensure safe operations until a permanent fix can be scheduled.

Another windstorm blew into the area Friday night, causing another power outage for approximately 4,000 in the Burien and Boulevard Park areas for around an hour.

Power was restored, and Seattle City Light says that a fallen tree was the cause.

There were several outages reported throughout the northwest, with up to 10,000 without power at times in areas including Tukwila, Rainier View, Rainier Beach, Magnolia, Queen Anne and parts of Fremont.

The boundaries were:

• On the north: S. Director Street
• On the south: SW 150th St.
• On the east: 16th Ave S.
• On the west: 25th Ave SW

Not all customers in the area were affected.

A fierce storm struck the Burien area early Tuesday morning, with sudden, racous thunderstorms, gusts up to 40 – 50mph, and of course, relentless, pounding rain.

This all added up to another night without power for around 300 Burien-area residents, concentrated mostly in the Three Tree Point neighborhood.

Seattle City Light said on its website that at one time, an estimated 8,500 lost power in a swath spanning the Burien/White Center areas all the way up to Northgate.