It was a weekend of unexpected surprises for many in Queen Anne, beginning with those who woke up without power Saturday Morning. The outage, which was caused by a blown transformer and left nearly 10,000 people without electricity in Queen Anne and Magnolia, was not aided by the wind, which toppled over several trees in the neighborhood, adding to the chaos.
This video, submitted by MichaelG, illustrates the scene at 1400 Bigelow Ave N on the hill, where one large tree not only fell into the street and took down some power lines, but crushed a parked car in the process.
The above photo was also submitted by MichaelG.
Photo submitted by Chas Royal.
The fallen tree blocked through access on Bigelow, and City Light and Seattle Fire Department crews kept the area closed off for most of the day while they cleaned up the mess.
Photo submitted by Mark Taylor.
According to Seattle City Light, all but 1,900 customers had their power restored by 1 p.m. Saturday. But the incident served as evidence of what can happen when Queen Anne’s aging power lines and a little unfavorable weather meet—what crews on the scene were calling a “real mess.”
Seattle City Light crews are doing some work along Queen Anne Avenue N today.
As of 11:15 a.m. three City Light trucks were blocking the right-hand, southbound lane along the Counterbalance from Aloha to the bottom of the hill. If Queen Anne Avenue is part of your commute today, keep in mind that it may be a bit slower leaving the hill due to the lane closure.
Update 12 p.m.: City Light crews have finished work on Queen Anne Avenue. All four lanes are now clear for through traffic.
In response, City Light released a statement late last night announcing a briefing at 10:30 a.m. today regarding the organization’s new streetlight response plan. Here is a copy of the release:
City Light Update on Streetlight Response Plan
Superintendent to provide details on streetlight review effort
SEATTLE – Last month a dog stepped on an energized metal plate covering a small streetlight vault on Queen Anne Avenue. Late Monday, City Light received a call from a customer in the High Point area who was concerned that there might be a faulty streetlight in her neighborhood.
“We received a call from a customer who believed that a streetlight in her neighborhood may not be working properly,” says Superintendent of City Light Jorge Carrasco. “Crews investigated the streetlight on Tuesday, found that there were exposed wires in the lamphead and immediately repaired it. There was no damage or injury associated with this malfunctioning streetlight.”
Superintendent Carrasco will brief the media on the plans City Light has to inspect and to make repairs, if necessary, to any of the 20,000 metal streetlight poles and 10,000 metal “hand holes” (small streetlight vault covers) in the utility’s service territory.
Specific questions will be addressed at Thursday’s media briefing.
The briefing will be held today, Thursday, December 9 at 10:30 a.m. at the Seattle Municipal Tower, 700 Fifth Avenue, Room 4050.
Sammy’s owner and Queen Anne resident Lisa McKibbin and her mother Nancy Bostdorff were heartbroken over the ordeal, and have taken to spreading awareness about stray voltage in city streets in the hopes of preventing future accidents involving pets, children, and adults.
In an open letter from Seattle City Light released today Superintendent Jorge Carrasco said the following:
On Thanksgiving, a dog was electrocuted on Queen Anne Avenue when it came into contact with a metal plate covering some electrical wires for four streetlights. This was a tragic incident and devastating for the family that owned the dog. We are truly sorry for their loss of a beloved family member. I want to assure the public that as soon as City Light was made aware of the situation, we responded by de-energizing the electrical service.
Our crews investigated the cause. We discovered that the original installation in 2006 did not include proper grounding of the four lights. Our crews have made the necessary repairs to all these lights and tested for any potential electrical charges. There is no electrical charge to any of the lights or groundcover plates. All the streetlights are functioning.
We want the public to be assured that this was an isolated incident. We are researching our records to determine whether there are similar lights elsewhere in our system. If we find there are, they will be inspected and any necessary repairs will be made immediately.
Despite word from City Light that repairs have been made to insure the safety of this particular groundcover plate, for Lisa and Nancy this is hardly enough.
“For four years these lights have not been grounded! Doesn’t anyone know the ABCs of electricity?” Nancy wrote to QueenAnneView.
Since we first reported the story on Saturday, the comments have erupted with condolences for Lisa and Nancy, and stories from fellow community members and pet owners who have experienced similar incidences in Queen Anne and elsewhere.
“I used to live back East, and every winter there were certain street corners that every dog seemed to avoid. My 100 pound beast would buck and fight if I tried to go near it. At first I thought he was just being stubborn, but about a week after his strange behavior, a dog in DC died from electrocution on the same corner. I learned to trust my dog,” Dana wrote.
Stories of these types of accidents are, unfortunately, nothing new. In January 2004 a 30-year-old woman in New York City died after stepping on a metal plate that had been electrified by a faulty underground cable. Her father took to fighting the hazard that took her life. Read that story in the New York Times archives here.
And here in Seattle the incidences, though not as horrifying as Sammy’s story, are pouring in. One reader, in fact, says their dog was shocked at the same site.
“It turns out our Labrador was once shocked on that same block. She yelped and moved, and my husband tried to check for stray voltage, not sure what had happened, but couldn’t tell what the problem was. Now we know for sure what happened,” Neens wrote.
“The day before Thanksgiving my oldest son (30) and his friend were walking my dog in West Seattle when he stepped on the same type plate and started writhing and yelping. He fell over and my son thought he had stepped on something sharp, possibly even been scared by the cold metal on his paw. After a few moments our cocker spaniel, Max, was able to stand and they brought him home. Since this, he has been limping when he walks a great deal and is very timid when he goes for walks. After seeing the news story tonight, we knew what had made Max fall over and act so strangely,” Sue Wilhelm wrote. “I applaud you for getting the word out about this “unseen” danger that we all come upon every day on our city streets. What a tragic way to be educated though. I shudder at the thought of this happening to any other person or pet.”
Lisa doesn’t think Seattle City Light’s response is enough either. “I don’t think Sam’s incident was “an isolated incident” as described by SCL,” Lisa says. “I still attribute his death to contact voltage which is defined as:
Contact voltage is caused by power system fault current as it flows through the impedance of available fault current pathways. The voltage we are trying to define (i.e. contact voltage) is only present when a power system fault exists (e.g. compromised insulation). The fault may be a very high impedance fault with very little fault current actually flowing, but it is still a fault, and still capable of creating measurable voltage between conductive surfaces that people or their animals may contact. This is true regardless of the type of power system (e.g. grounded, un-grounded, etc.). Clearly both the level of contact voltage and the amount of fault current will change when a person or animal makes contact, but this guide should be about the detection, evaluation, and mitigation necessary to avoid a potentially lethal exposure.
Lisa says she plans to continue her efforts to bring awareness, ensure public safety, and work “very hard to see that this type of tragedy will not happen again.”
“I have been receiving blog entires from people who say their dogs have received shocks from other parts of the city. John, owner of Oslo’s, now believes his dog was electriaclly shocked just one day prior to Sammy’s death. Oslo thankfully didn’t have the same fate, but was still affected. John showed me his boots, after stepping on the sidewalk to pick up Oslo after he was convulsing and screeching, the heel is completely shot, rubber sole has been melted and cracked! Oslo was about 25 ft from where Sam died, after what is now believed to be electric shock. John had no idea, much like me, this is why I need to spread this awareness and not fear, just awareness.”
Queen Anne resident Nancy Bostdorff and her daughter, Lisa McKibbin, have just lost a beloved friend—their dog Sammy. While walking Sammy along Queen Anne Ave N on Thanksgiving Day, he was tragically electrocuted. The unpredictable accident upset his family, and inspired them to help inform residents in the hopes of preventing other animals from being killed in the same way.
“He was walking along QA Ave, near Bricco, my daughter stepped aside to let another dog pass, and moved onto the electric plate near a lamp post. He started screaming and went into convulsions, and died. We took him to the emergency hospital, where they gave him CPR for 30 minutes, to no avail. Seattle PD cordoned off the street, and Seattle City Light cut power to the block to investigate. I just don’t want anything to happen to another dog,” Nancy Bostdorff wrote. “It is so painful.”
“The metal lamp posts may be leaking electricity, or there could be faulty wiring in the power plate that is not visible to walkers. I witnessed my dog being electrocuted, needless to say, it was excruciatingly painful for him and for me to watch. He died instantly. When I stuck my hand in his mouth I felt a shock from the electric waves emanating from his mouth. My poor baby!” Lisa wrote.
According to Lisa, electrical leakages on city streets are more common of an occurrence than most people realize.
“My mom and I would just like to spread the word out there, bring awareness to people to be extremely cautious of the possibility that the metal lamp posts on the Ave (or anywhere for that matter) could be leaking electricity, as well as steel plates on the sidewalk possibly having faulty wiring underneath the surface. We just don’t want to see any more victims, adult, child, or dog of this terrible hazard. This is a horrible horrible tragedy and should not happen to anyone else and their dogs,” she said.
Nancy and Lisa shared their story with Dr. Spencer at the Queen Anne Animal Clinic, who they say is planning to hold a meeting with fellow vets to discuss this deadly hazard. The family also filed a police incident report, which Lisa says they will be following up on this week.
“The police and Seattle City Light had shut down the power on the block and were checking the area,” she wrote. “We hope to find out if there was faulty wiring, leaking electricity, etc., next week.”
Lisa is also starting a blog on Sammy’s behalf. “I want to cover the prevention of electrocution and dogs. I am learning not many people are aware of this, back east it has happened quite a bit, perhaps because they get much worse weather than we do, but lately we’ve been hit hard by Mother Nature,” she wrote. “Maybe together we can spread the word and save lives.” You can visit Lisa’s blog here.
Update: Seattle City Light has responded to the story here.
Seattle City Light recently revamped its website, adding new functionalities, including more information about power outages.
City Light’s Outage Management System displays a map of Seattle with the total number of power outages and customers affected at the top of the page. Click on a pinpoint of a particular outage on the map and see the number of customers affected, the cause, and the estimated time to restore service.
You may be asking, “What good will this do if my power is out?” Well, your power may be out, but you may have a friend or family member whose power is not out. This resource will give them the ability to relay information to you. OMS information can also be accessed via smart phone or you can take a laptop computer to a Wi-Fi hotspot to access information to find out when your power will return.
Coming in February, the second phase of OMS is slated to go live, offering more options such as automated callbacks to notify customers when power is restored and a “predictions” engine to enhance estimates for service restoration.
Given the number of power outages we had in Queen Anne around this time last year, this new service could come in handy for many in the neighborhood.
Seattle City Light has been working to rebuild the electrical system at Seattle Center and around Lower Queen Anne (especially after all of the planned and unplanned outages over the last year). The work, however, requires a planned outage in the area from 11 p.m. tonight, Thursday, September 9, from to 7 a.m. Friday morning. Here are the details from City Light:
New cable will be pulled in and connected along a Thomas Street section of the system. The area affected by the outage is bordered by Mercer Street on the north, Denny Way on the south, 5th Avenue North of the east and 1st Avenue North on the west. The electrical system serving the Seattle Center campus is aging. This work is part two of three phases in a systemic replacement of the system. Three additional outages will be needed to complete phase two. The dates of those outages are still being confirmed.
Please contact Kelly Enright at (206) 684-3111 or email her at kelly.enright@seattle.gov for more information.
Today, Wednesday, September 8, Seattle City Light crews will begin work to replace the tall transmission tower on the south side of the Ship Canal at Warren Avenue, between Nickerson and the Canal. Today crews will be removing a 20-foot section of steel lattice from the 190-foot tower, part of repairs that could take up to three weeks. The work will begin around 9 a.m. and is expected to take several hours. From City Light:
A 230’ crane will lift the tower and lower it to the ground for the necessary steelwork to be completed. It’s estimated the repairs will take up to three weeks and then the steel section will be re-positioned on the tower.
The high voltage lines that are held by the tower will be restrung across the Canal in the summer of 2011. These distribution lines provide additional reliability and back-up for power running from the utility’s Ballard Substation to residents in Queen Anne and Magnolia.
So in case you drive by and wonder what they’re doing way up there, now you know.
Last week Seattle City Light announced a new plan to tackle the cause of Queen Anne’s frequent power outages and prevent future blackouts: injecting the neighborhood’s aging underground cables with silicone. City Light is holding a meeting tonight, Wednesday, May 26 at 6:30 p.m. (at the Queen Anne Community Center, Room 3, located at 1901 1st Ave W.) to brief residents on the project, what the work will entail, and answer any questions or concerns.
Seattle City Councilmember Bruce Harrell sent out this message to community members this week encouraging participation in tonight’s meeting:
Beginning this June, Seattle City Light will begin a 10-week underground cable injection project on Queen Anne that will increase reliability of electrical service and add 25 years of life to aging underground cables. City Light is working with a company called Novinium to inject the aging underground cables with silicone. The process fills cracks that have developed in the cable insulation that can lead to power failures. The project is planned to begin in mid-June and is estimated to last about 10 weeks. On a typical day, crews will work between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. Cables determined to be beyond repair will have to be replaced and customers will be notified at least one week in advance of any planned outages which may be necessary to replace the cable.
The silicone injection process is a great alternative to digging up and replacing old cables because it will cost less and be less disruptive to the neighborhood while extending the life of the existing cables. The process has been successfully applied to projects in Leschi, View Ridge, Laurelhurst and Arroyo Beach. When we can employ methods that enhance reliability, cost less and minimize disruption to customers, it is a step in the right direction.
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