Power outages continue to plague portions of Western Washington
Jun 3, 2024, 6:26 AM | Updated: 6:53 pm
(Image courtesy of the Seattle City Light outage map)
Thousands were reeling from early morning power outages across Western Washington Monday morning as an atmospheric river flooded the region with strong winds and heavy rainfall.
Many of those outages extended into Monday evening and there is more wind and precipitation expected into Tuesday.
More on the region’s current atmospheric river: Warm weather awaits after region’s last atmospheric river storm
Power outages in Seattle
The Seattle City Light outage map shows that nearly 7,240 customers are still being affected by power outages as of 6:45 p.m. Monday. That is an improvement from an hour earlier when 14,300 customers were affected by power outages as of 5:40 p.m. Monday. Those outages aren’t limited to one particular neighborhood of the city either.
Both numbers are higher than what the utility reported at approximately 2 p.m. At that time, about 5,300 customers were reported not to have power.
Earlier Monday morning, Seattle City Light showed at least 7,000 people in the Stevens and Montlake neighborhoods waking up without electricity Monday morning. Additional outages in Queen Anne and the Interbay area reached at least 9,300 people. In the Phinney Ridge/Greenwood area, more than 2,800 customers were without power.
In Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, nearly 7,000 Seattle City Light customers suffered from power outages early Monday. Seattle City Light’s map currently displays that the outage is affecting areas east of Cal Anderson Park and west of Washington Park, extending south to Madison Street.
In a post on X Monday afternoon, Seattle City Light warned users that “forecasts call for another round of wind and rain (Monday) evening.” The utility recommended customers charge their devices and be prepared for a potential outage.
Weather forecasts call for another round of wind and rain this evening. Be sure to charge up your devices and visit https://t.co/8ezMr9qgo3 to learn more about preparing for a potential outage. pic.twitter.com/4QDiN9yAIX
— Seattle City Light (@SEACityLight) June 3, 2024
The utility reiterated that warning a couple of hours later and told users that its workers are going as fast as they can to remedy the power outages.
City Light crews continue to work as quickly as safety allows to restore power to those affected by today’s weather event. More wind and rain are expected this evening increasing the chance of new outages occurring.
— Seattle City Light (@SEACityLight) June 4, 2024
Power outages in Snohomish County
The Snohomish County Public Utility District is reporting on its outage map that over 6,800 customers are without power as of 6:45 p.m. Monday.
That number is down from 6 p.m. when 9,100 customers were without power as of 6 p.m. Monday. Most of the issues were centered in the Maltby area, but outages can be seen all over the county.
More on Seattle weather: Summer weather is just around the corner
Snohomish Regional Fire & Rescue posted a video of the damage the storm caused over the weekend, resulting in downed power lines and damaged property due to tumbling trees.
Multiple trees and power lines down throughout the district. Including at this structure fire located in the 13000 Block of 44th St NE in Lake Stevens. Crews arrived to a tree into the house with power lines down, and a fully involved fire. More info will be available shortly. pic.twitter.com/yP8OjQs03y
— Snohomish Regional Fire & Rescue (@SnoRegionalFire) June 3, 2024
Power outages in the Tacoma area
Tacoma Public Utilities (TPU) reported very few issues Monday evening. As of 6 p.m., the utility’s outage map shows just 20 customers affected.
That’s a marked departure from about 12 hours previously, as about 25,000 customers were impacted by a major outage as of 6:11 a.m.
The outages were seen between Frederickson extending south to Elk Plain, east past Graham and west by Joint Base Lewis–McChord (JBLM).
At approximately 2 p.m., 1,800 outages remained in the area.
Other Washington power outages
The Puget Sound Energy (PSE) outage map shows just shy of 3,000 customers being affected by 87 outages as of 6:45 p.m. Monday.
As of 6:30 p.m., 4,540 customers had been impacted by 92 outages. Those outages go as far north as Point Roberts on the U.S.-Canada border and as far south as some small areas of Olympia.
That number, while still high, is a marked improvement from about 2 p.m., which saw about 20,000 users without power.
As of 4:50 a.m., PSE reported outages impacting approximately 15,000 people from Redmond to Graham to Olympia.
Some schools in the region were on a late start because of the outages. The Snoqualmie Valley and Bethel school districts delayed their start time by two hours. Classes at Seattle Preparatory School were set to begin at 9:30 a.m. Check MyNorthwest’s school closure tracker for additional information on delayed school start times due to power outages throughout Western Washington.
Steve Coogan is the lead editor of MyNorthwest. You can read more of his stories here. Follow Steve on X, or email him here.
Frank Sumrall is a content editor at MyNorthwest. You can read his stories here and you can email him here.