More than 23,000 without power in Puyallup area after 4 substations go out
Feb 11, 2026, 11:26 AM | Updated: Feb 12, 2026, 11:48 am
In an aerial view, high voltage power lines run through a sub-station along the electrical power grid. (Photo: Joe Raedle, Getty Images)
(Photo: Joe Raedle, Getty Images)
Thousands of Puyallup area residents were without power Wednesday morning due to a bird making contact with a transmission line.
The early morning outage cut power to more than 23,000 people in the Puyallup, South Hill, and Summit areas, according to The Olympian.
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4 substation outages cut power for thousands of Puyallup area residents
KIRO Newsradio reached out to Gerald Tracy, a spokesperson for Puget Sound Energy (PSE), who noted that a bird caused the outage, and power was restored quickly by crews.
“The group outages in Puyallup yesterday were caused by a bird hitting a transmission line,” Tracy stated. “The transmission line being down led to four substations and more than 19k customers losing power. Crews were already working in the area and were able to get power restored within about an hour and a half.”
According to the PSE Outage Map, the estimated restoration time was set for 12:30 p.m., but Tracy believed that estimate could change.
“That’s based off of standard restoration times, not this specific situation yet, but that will change as we find out the cause,” Tracy told The News Tribune.
The PSE Outage Map no longer indicates a power outage in the Puyallup area as of this reporting.
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