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.

For more information or updates, visit Highline’s website here: http://www.highlineschools.org/Pages/Home.aspx

Icicles on a 737 on Jan. 19, 2012 courtesy Alaska Airlines.

Whew…after more than 14 hours without power due to the unexpected ice storm, the B-Town Blog Home HQ got its electricity restored, and after dusting ourselves off, cleaning up the mess known as “keep the kids warm all night with just a fireplace in an old, drafty house,” we’re finally doing our best to catch up. Here’s the latest weather-related news:

• Power was restored to parts of Burien Thursday night, just before midnight. However, with the large amount of ice still coating trees and power lines, we suggest you stay prepared – see our list of suggestions below.
• Highline Public Schools (and most others) are closed today (including West Seattle Montessori School and West Seattle Academy).
• The National Weather Service says warmer temps are expected today. We remain skeptical as we were TOTALLY SURPRISED BY AN ICE STORM. Luckily, we still have a little pile of firewood left.
• Flooding may be an issue over the next few days as the snow and ice melt. Clear your storm drains!
• A fallen tree on Maplewild Ave SW (BTW, this was blocking the road to our Home HQ) has been removed and the road has been reopened. However numerous power outages remain in the Burien area. People who see a downed power line should stay clear and call 911.
• Burien City Hall and Community Center will open at 10 a.m. today (Friday) due to the inclement weather and hazardous driving conditions.  All Recreation Dept. classes and programs are canceled for the day.
• Waste Management has not been able to service all Burien customers this week due to the snow. Missed customers can place out twice their regular amount their next collection day at no additional charge.
• In Normandy Park, Allied Waste residential collection of recycle, yard waste and garbage is suspended today due to inclement weather; critical commercial accounts will be serviced on a limited basis. Residents who are missed due to inclement weather, whose normal collection day is Friday (today) may put up to double the load out on their next regularly scheduled collection day.
• The Port of Seattle says that all runways are open at Sea-Tac Airport today. No operational impacts are expected with airfield conditions however flight cancellations have occurred. Check with your airline for the status of your specific flight.
• Alaska Airlines reports “Due to fluctuating weather conditions and forecasts of freezing rain, Alaska Airlines is proactively canceling 50 flights and plans to operate 60 percent of its daily 120 departures Friday, Jan. 20. Details regarding Horizon Air’s operation will be provided tomorrow. Customers traveling on flights into and out of Seattle tomorrow are STRONGLY urged to check www.alaskaair.com before leaving for the airport.”

Here’s the latest ‘Winter Weather Message‘ from the Weather Wonks:

URGENT – WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SEATTLE WA
402 AM PST FRI JAN 20 2012

.WARMER AIR WILL GRADUALLY MOVE NORTH THROUGH WESTERN WASHINGTON THIS MORNING INTO THE AFTERNOON HOURS WITH TEMPERATURES MODERATING AND PRECIPITATION CHANGING OVER TO ALL RAIN FROM THE SOUTH TO THE NORTH DURING THE DAY. TEMPERATURES WILL REMAIN ABOVE FREEZING TONIGHT.

ANOTHER STRONG…WET SYSTEM WILL BRING HEAVY SNOW TO THE MOUNTAINS TONIGHT INTO SATURDAY.

…WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 10 AM PST THIS MORNING…

* SOME AFFECTED LOCATIONS…SEATTLE…OLYMPIA…TACOMA… BREMERTON AND BELLEVUE.

* TIMING….SNOW OR LIGHT FREEZING DRIZZLE ENDING THIS MORNING.

* ACCUMULATIONS…NO ADDITIONAL SNOW ACCUMULATION. POSSIBLE ADDITIONAL ICE ACCUMULATION OF 0.10 INCHES OR LESS.

* MAIN IMPACT…EXPECT WINTER WEATHER DRIVING CONDITIONS.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…

A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY IS ISSUED FOR A VARIETY OF WINTER WEATHER CONDITIONS SUCH AS FREEZING RAIN AND SNOW OCCURRING AT THE SAME TIME. WHILE THE WEATHER WILL BE SIGNIFICANT…THE WORD ADVISORY MEANS THAT LIFE THREATENING WINTER WEATHER IS NOT EXPECTED.

Here are some suggestions for staying warm in a power outage:

• FROM SEATTLE CITY LIGHT:
• If you experience a power outage, report it to Seattle City Light at (206) 684-3000.
• Keep doors closed and block drafts to keep the heat you already have inside your home.
• Dress in warm layers of clothing to keep yourself warm.
• Keep barbecue grills and electric generators outside. Bringing them indoors can quickly cause fatal buildups of carbon monoxide.
• Updates on outages are available online at www.seattle.gov/light/sysstat and on mobile devices at http://m.seattle.gov/light
• EDITOR’S PERSONAL TIPS:
• Bundle up – find that long-lost long underwear and ugly sweater. Layer t-shirts underneath until you can’t move your arms.
• Don’t go out and play in the snow if you have no power – you’ll end up getting all wet with no way to get sufficiently dry. Seriously!
• Stay together with your family and friends and pull out an old board game. BTB Editor Scott Schaefer played an epic, marathon bout of ‘Monopoly’ in front of the fire with his family for most of Thursday, and time seemingly flew by (BTW, the game was determined to be a 4-way draw after 6-7 hours!).
• Make sure you have plenty of firewood ready to burn. If not, find some downed branches and break them into small pieces, then pray to the steaming, hissing wooden moisture gods that they’ll actually burn. Or find bits of your old Christmas tree. Or go knock on the door of your neighbor’s house – you know, the only one in the neighborhood with the lights still on, and the humming of a generator in the back?

Here’s the latest weather forecast:

Today: Occasional snow and freezing drizzle before 10am, then rain. Snow level 200 feet rising to 3700 feet. High near 40. North wind at 11 mph becoming west southwest. Chance of precipitation is 100%. Little or no ice accumulation expected. Total daytime snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible.

Tonight: Rain. Low around 40. South southeast wind around 14 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%.

Saturday: Showers likely, mainly before 10am. Cloudy, with a high near 46. Breezy, with a southwest wind between 22 and 29 mph, with gusts as high as 40 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%.

Saturday Night: A 40 percent chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 38. Southwest wind around 14 mph.

Sunday: Rain. High near 44. South southeast wind around 14 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%.

Sunday Night: Rain. Low around 38. Chance of precipitation is 90%.

Monday: Showers likely. Cloudy, with a high near 43. Chance of precipitation is 70%.

Monday Night: A chance of showers. Cloudy, with a low around 37.

Tuesday: Rain. Cloudy, with a high near 47.

Tuesday Night: Rain. Cloudy, with a low around 37.

Wednesday: Rain. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 51.

Wednesday Night: Rain. Cloudy, with a low around 37.

Thursday: Showers. Cloudy, with a high near 48.

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…).

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.

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.

UPDATE 5/4/10 8pm: Seattle City Light says that power has been restored to customers affected by an early evening outage in Burien and Arbor Lake in King County.

The original outage involved 4,003 customers.

The outage started at 4:30 p.m. and appears to have been caused by a failed insulator.

The rough boundaries of the outage were:

• North: South Director Street
• South: SW 150th Street
• East: 12th Avenue South
• West: 25th Avenue SW

PREVIOUSLY: A power outage that struck Tuesday afternoon (May 4) at 4:30pm is affecting 4,003 customers in Burien and Arbor Lake in King County.

According to Seattle City Light, crews are “en route to find the cause and restore service.”

The initial estimate for power restoration is 8pm.

Approximate boundaries of the outage are:

• North: South Director Street
• South: SW 150th Street
• East: 12th Avenue South
• West: 25th Avenue SW

Not all customers within these boundaries may be without power, and if you’re reading this, it’s likely you haven’t lost it yet either.

A power outage hit Burien Tuesday afternoon (April 27) around 1:35pm, initially affecting some 4.750 customers, according to Seattle City Light spokesman Peter Clark.

UPDATE 2:46pm: According to City Light’s Powerlines page, power has been fully restored and the culprit was a tree branch:

UPDATE 2:24pm: @SEACityLight just Tweeted:

“A power outage in South Seattle and Burien has been mostly restored. Current estimate 800 customers still out. Cause ID’d and being fixed.”

We first caught wind of the outage through a Tweet from @isisb511, who said:

“Omg everyones power in burien on 1st ave went out. Both my branch (and the whole freddies) lights went out and chris’ branch power went out”

and

“Omg power out again! Three times straight its out now… for good.. my goodness”

We also got a call from Photographer Francis Zera, who said that there were multiple “flickering” outages before power finally went out for good.

While the cause of the outage is still being investigated, the boundaries of it are:

• NORTH: South 96th
• SOUTH: South 172nd Street
• EAST: 24th Ave South
• WEST: 33rd Ave SW

According to Clark, crews were en route to investigate.

It is unknown when electricity will be restored, but if you’re a Blog Reader in these areas you can always use your iPhone or other mobile device.

To find out more, visit Seattle City Light’s “Powerlines” page here (be aware though that as of 2:15pm, that site has yet to be updated) or follow them on Twitter here.

UPDATE 4/2/10 @ 5pm: Seattle City Light says that their repair crews restored power about 3:30pm to 3,700 homes and businesses in Burien and unincorporated King County that were affected by an outage caused by a spring wind storm.

As we reported earlier, the outage occurred about 2:20 p.m.

The general boundaries were South 96th Street on the north, SW 175th Street on the south, 24th Ave South on the west, and 33rd Ave SW on the east. Not all customers within those boundaries were affected.

According to City Light, the outage was caused by a falling tree coming into contact with power lines in the high winds.

When it was first reported, City Light said that crews “expected to have power fully restored about 8pm.” They obviously beat that deadline.

Winds also caused numerous outages in several other areas of City Light’s territory, including about 2,900 homes and businesses in Lake Forest Park that were affected by – you guessed it – a tree blown over by high winds into power lines.

Seattle City Light had 14 crews ready to respond to outages related to overhead power lines throughout the day.