Lessons learned from Seattle’s major power outage

There are a few lessons to be learned from the power outage that left about 60 percent of downtown Seattle in the dark on Wednesday and stopped the important work being done by “Hammering Man.”

Lesson No. 1: Have an emergency plan

You may find yourself in a tough situation; some worse than others. Luckily, it’s unlikely anyone will starve thanks to the brave heroes running the food trucks.

With power out downtown Seattle, food trucks are doing brisk business in Westlake Park. #SEAoutage pic.twitter.com/0StL45NvkQ

— David Bennett (@DvBnt) May 25, 2016

In order to prevent starvation, however, hungry survivors should keep some cash on hand, as cards will become useless.

Lesson No. 2: Don’t expect to get out of the city any time soon

With traffic signals down and pedestrians walking around willy-nilly, it’s going to be tough to get out of the city. During the outage on Wednesday, streets became parking lots as police worked to get the hordes of people leaving work early out of the city.

KIRO Radio’s Chris Sullivan described the situation on the roads as “thunderdome.” “Don’t bother trying to get out,” he said — without power to traffic signals, four-way stops became free-for-alls.

Traffic delays through the Downtown area are still heavy due to the #SeaOutage. Use SR-99 as an alternate route. pic.twitter.com/vMzrZYqXs7

— seattledot (@seattledot) May 25, 2016

Lesson 3: Help people if you are able to

Remember that others may not be as well-off as you during an emergency situation. That’s why it is important to do what you can to help. Consider carrying a small first-aid kit with you just in case, or, as one man did, a ukulele.

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