Thousands lose power as outages spread across Seattle

4:00pm: Well, it looks like Ballard has survived yet another wind-pocalypse: only a few houses were without power during today’s windstorm. The winds are now calming down, as the weather system moves out of the Seattle area. There still may be some gusts through this evening, but likely not as severe as earlier today, according to the National Weather Service Seattle.

Seattle City Light workers have been busy — of the 30,000 customers without power around midday, they’re down to current 15,000 outages. Magnolia’s 3,800 without power should have it restored shortly, according to the power outages map.

Today's system is beginning to depart the area as seen on #GOES17. Winds will remain gusty through this evening, though not as strong as this morning-earlier afternoon. #WAwx pic.twitter.com/uegxyLLLDp

— NWS Seattle (@NWSSeattle) December 20, 2018

2:40pm: There are power lines hanging down over the BNSF tracks near Magnolia, which may interrupt the Sounder train evening service between Seattle and Everett.

BNSF is working with Seattle City Lights to clear the lines to make room for train traffic. At this time, no estimated time of repair.

1:15pm: Seattle City Light is now showing outages in the North Beach neighborhood north of NW 85th St — so far, just three customers are affected.

1:07pm: Rhiannon Parsons sent us the below photo of a leaning power pole next to McDonalds and Firestone on NW Market St. She says police are currently guarding it.

12:43pm: Jay McGrew posted the below photo in the My Ballard Group, of a telephone pole that broke in half near the corner of NW Bright Street and Leary Way NW. Police have been called, he says.

The Fred Meyer reportedly lost power — they’re currently running on generators.

Others in the group are reporting some flickering lights and brief outages, but nothing major yet.

Original (12:05pm):The windstorm has caused a number of outages already, with gusts knocking out power all over Seattle.

Just before noon, 3,887 Magnolia residents were without power. A total of 29,000 Seattle City Light customers were without power as of 12:05 pm.

The Woodland Park Zoo has closed early due to safety concerns.

There have been reports of wires down all over the city, and a transformer fire in Northeast Seattle. And, “lots of people stuck in elevators,” according to our resident police scanner monitor, Silver.

No outages reported in Ballard yet, but the strongest winds are expected to hit this afternoon — we’ll continue to update as the day unfolds.

If you have any photos or news to report from your area, send them to us at tips@myballard.com