Press "Enter" to skip to content

Auburn Experiences Power Outages Throughout City After Powerful Windstorm

Advertisement

Much of Auburn, Washington remains without power.  Puget Sound Energy has crews out assessing damage and working to restore power. 

Remember to never use generators, BBQs, or propane inside. Never leave burning candles unattended.

Advertisement
Pse, Puget sound energy, downed tree, downed powerline, storm damage
Damaged lines, causing widespread power outages | courtesy photo, PSE

With downed trees, power lines and other damage and debris from the storm throughout the city, only be on the road if you need to and stay alert for hazards. Never touch downed lines!!

And as always: check on any family, friends and neighbors who may be vulnerable during an extended power outage.

From Pugest Sound Energy

Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019:
A forceful windstorm moved through the Puget Sound region early Sunday, with gusts near 60 mph in some areas, causing widespread outages in the Puget Sound area. As of 9 p.m., approximately 95,000 customers are without power. Since the peak of the storm, we’ve restored power to 203,000 customers.Pse, Puget sound energy

Damage is heaviest in East King and Pierce counties. High winds and resulting tree damage have downed local power lines and poles, and have also caused substation outages. Fallen trees are impacting road access in some areas, and are making damage assessment challenging in some locations.

Advertisement

There are often logistical challenges for our crews and their equipment during a storm. Damage and debris can make roads and neighborhoods impassable. Those areas must be cleared before we can move in and begin our assessment and restoration work.

While we will be working as quickly as we safely can, we expect that some customers may be without power for multiple days due to the severity of the damage to our system.

9:00PM Update

As of 9 p.m., we’ve restored 19 transmission line segments and restored 16 substations. In many cases, transmission lines and substations need to be brought back into service first, before crews can focus on the local distribution system.

Advertisement

As damage assessment teams complete their on-the-ground surveys, we will provide updated estimated restoration times on our outage map at pse.com/outagemap and the myPSE app. As we have new information, these estimated restoration times may change, as they are estimates only. We will update you with the best information we have, as we have it.

We’ve brought in additional crews from around the region to assist with restoration efforts, and have dispatched helicopters to assess damage where conditions have made ground access difficult to impossible. Our Emergency Coordination Center and local storm bases are open and coordinating restoration efforts.

 

Pse, Puget sound energy, downed tree
Storm damage causing widespread power outage

We know it’s difficult to be without power, especially on cold winter days, and are working as quickly as we can to assess damage and begin making repairs—with safety as our top priority.

We are aware that some customers are receiving text or email notifications or seeing on the outage map that their service has been restored when they still are out of power. If you are still out of power and have received a notification like this, please report the outage again at pse.com/outage.

There can be multiple issues in a circuit and once the known issues are resolved some customers might remain without power. Re-reporting the outage lets our damage assessors know that further investigation needs to be completed in that area.

We are currently experiencing a high volume of customers viewing the outage map on pse.com. We will continue to focus on improving our response time, and appreciate your patience.

Check Alerts and advisories for more information.


Report and track power outages online:

Advertisement
More from NewsMore posts in News »
Advertisement

Be First to Comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

WP2Social Auto Publish Powered By : XYZScripts.com