A “large” power outage affected hundreds of workers in downtown Seattle on Wednesday afternoon.
Seattle City Light said that an equipment failure was to blame for the outage, which hit just after 11:30 a.m. in neighborhoods ranging from Belltown to Pioneer Square. SCL said an estimated time of restoration was 12:40 p.m. but others noted longer delays.
The outage is causing a bevy of problems, from folks stuck in elevators to traffic delays.
https://twitter.com/seattledot/status/735550141646524416
Along with government buildings like Seattle Central Library and Seattle City Light itself, there are a number of tech companies currently without power, including startups like Moz and Pitchbook. Co-working spaces like Galvanize and venture capital firms like Madrona were also affected.
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https://twitter.com/calbucci/status/735539992571711488
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Amazon, headquartered in South Lake Union, seems to be OK.
https://twitter.com/YiddishNinja/status/735541989806997504
Uber sent text messages to drivers in the area, asking them to “avoid trips into downtown.”
While the lack of internet and power caused issues for many workers, food carts seemed to be doing fine.
https://twitter.com/Seattlemag/status/735544429692358657
Update, 12:33 p.m.:
Seattle City Light said power was restored in downtown, about an hour after the outage began.
https://twitter.com/SEACityLight/status/735553805828263936
Update, 3:30 p.m.:
The City said that 60 percent of downtown Seattle was affected by the outage.
“Thanks to the quick work of City Light crews, power was restored to downtown within about an hour,” Mayor Ed Murray said in a statement. “Seattle police officers responded to manage traffic on downtown streets, and firefighters responded to calls from people stuck in elevators. Thankfully, there were no significant injuries as a result of this incident.”
The outage was caused by a “substation breaker operation” at the Massachusetts Substation, which caused power loss at the Union Substation that also serves downtown.