Seattle City Light crews demonstrated their preparations for winter storms Monday, while calling on residents to their part by assembling emergency preparedness kits and developing plans for how they will respond when storms arrive. Seattle City Light crews demonstrated their preparations for winter storms Monday, while calling on residents to their part by assembling emergency preparedness kits and developing plans for how they will respond when storms arrive.
City Light operators, and crews from line service, vegetation management, overhead service and pole setting participated in a demonstration of the work they do to repair typical storm damage. The event was part of the regional Take Winter By Storm campaign, which is designed to raise awareness of winter storms and better prepare residents to get through them safely.
“Winter storms are part of living in the Pacific Northwest and they often bring power outages from falling branches and trees,” Field Operations Manager Richard Moralez said. “Our crews will work diligently to restore service, but it could be hours or days before everyone has power after a big storm. That’s why it’s so important for people to be prepared to take care of themselves during an outage.”
During large outage events, City Light prioritizes its repair work. The first priority is life safety, such as incidents where electrified wires have fallen on a car. Next are emergency services, such as hospitals. Then, crews will work on the repairs that will bring the most customers back into service and continue working down the list until everyone is back in power.
You can see the outages a typical winter storm can cause and the restoration efforts of City Light crews as they would appear on the utility’s outage map in the video below.
To prepare yourself and your family to get through a power outage safely, build an emergency preparedness kit, have a plan for what you will do and practice that plan. Remember to check your kit’s supplies to make sure they are fresh. When you’re ready, check on family, friends and neighbors to help them get ready too. You can get tips and checklist at www.takewinterbystorm.org.
Seattle City Light is the 10th largest public electric utility in the United States. It has some of the lowest cost customer rates of any urban utility, providing reliable, renewable and environmentally responsible power to about 750,000 Seattle area residents. City Light has been greenhouse gas neutral since 2005, the first electric utility in the nation to achieve that distinction.