KING COUNTY, Wash. — It’s almost been a week since the powerful windstorms hit Western Washington causing hundreds of thousands to lose power. Puget Sound Energy crews have been working constantly to get the power back on for all customers.
“It was those strong winds where the crews couldn’t even do anything because it was too dangerous for them to work,” Spokesperson Andrew Padula said.
As of Sunday evening, PSE says they’ve restored 97% of their customer’s power. Padula tells KIRO 7 work is still underway in parts of North and South King County.
Padula says areas like Mercer Island, Sammamish, Issaquah, Mirrormont and pockets of Bellevue should be fully restored by Monday morning, but some small groups may not get power back until Tuesday.
“Especially when we start to put in a certain time that they expect their power on and they’re making plans. And unfortunately, we come across some complexities to the restoration work that is now delaying this,” Padula said.
PSE says they understand customers’ frustrations and that it’s hard to be without power, but they want customers to know they are doing everything they can to fix it.
“And know that our crews are out there working until everyone’s lights are back on,” Padula said.
PSE says they continue to update their outage map as crews continue their work.
On Sunday PSE released the following statement:
Power is restored to 97 percent of Puget Sound Energy customers impacted by last Tuesday’s hurricane force winds. For the remaining customers, PSE expects to have power restored either at the estimated time we provided earlier this week, or within a few hours of that time.Due to the significant amount of damage encountered by crews in the field, small groups of customers in the hardest hit areas of King County will see their estimated restoration time pushed back.
“We know our customers have been making plans based on our estimates and that this has been a long and difficult time for them,” said Michelle Vargo, PSE Senior Vice President of Operations. “Our crews have been pushing hard to meet the estimates we provided earlier. Now that we have different expectations for some customers, we want them to know as soon as possible. Work will continue around the clock until power is restored to every customer impacted by last Tuesday’s powerful storm.”
South King County:
There are approximately 3,000 customers remaining without power, primarily in Renton Highlands, Enumclaw, Maple Valley, Hobart and Ravensdale. The majority of customers will still see their outage restored by or within a few hours of 6:00 p.m. tonight. At this time, we expect that approximately 500 customers will have their estimated restoration time moved to Monday Nov. 25 at 3:00 pm.
North King County:
There are approximately 18,000 customers remaining without power, primarily in Issaquah, Mirrormont, Sammamish (Pine Lake, Klahanie and Sahalee), Mercer Island, and pockets of Bellevue. The majority of customers will still see their outage restored by or within a few hours of 10:00 a.m. Monday, Nov. 25. However, small groups of customers will see their estimated restored time moved to Tuesday, Nov. 26 at 2:00 p.m. At this time, we do not have an exact number of customers whose anticipated time to have their service restored will be delayed, but anticipate it being a limited number.
Why are estimated restoration times being pushed out?
Work has been much slower because of the number of fallen trees, broken poles, downed wire and damaged equipment. Each one of these restoration jobs is complex and requires multiple resources to fix. More than 150 crews and 70 tree crews are working in the field. Each crew includes 4-5 people, plus flaggers and support personnel.
What can customers expect?
PSE’s outage map is in the process of being updated. If a customer’s estimated restoration time remains unchanged, we still expect to have their power restored at the planned time or within a few hours of that time as crews complete those jobs. For all customers, as our field crews gain more detailed information about their outage, PSE will update the outage map with a more specific time for their home or business.
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