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How City Light Responded to the Bomb Cyclone and Restored Power to 114,000 Customers

In the wake of last week’s bomb cyclone, hundreds of City Light employees worked together to restore power to all 114,000 customers affected by high winds, downed trees and blowing debris.

What happened?

On Tuesday, November 19, strong winds from a rare “bomb cyclone” hit the Seattle area. Gusts of nearly 60 miles per hour knocked down trees and power lines, breaking poles and damaging equipment. Over 114,000 Seattle City Light customers lost power during the peak of the storm — our largest outage since 2006.

The hardest-hit areas were:

  • Northern neighborhoods like Shoreline and Lake Forest Park.
  • Southern neighborhoods including Burien and Southeast Seattle.

How we responded

Our teams prepared ahead of the storm by ensuring crews were well equipped with the necessary tools and materials to respond. Once the storm passed:

  • We restored power to 90,000 customers in the first 24 hours.
  • By Thursday morning, fewer than 10,000 customers were still without power.
  • By early Sunday evening, power had been fully restored to those affected.

Shots shared by our crews in the field throughout last week.

Some repairs were extensive taking longer because of fallen trees, debris, and the need to replace poles and re-string multiple spans of wire. Customers in areas like Lake Forest Park were among the hardest hit.

Our team effort

Hundreds of City Light employees worked through the storm to restore electricity quickly and safely. Field crews, schedulers, and team leaders coordinated repairs, while support staff provided tools, resources, and updates to customers.

To help expedite the repairs, we called upon other utilities in the region, namely Avista and Tacoma Power, to help speed up recovery efforts.

Next steps

We are reviewing our response to identify areas for improvement in future storms. Our crews are also revisiting temporary repair sites to make permanent fixes. If you notice issues like sagging power lines or tree limbs on wires, please call us at 206-684-3000. This helps us ensure all storm damage is addressed.

Thank you for your patience, support, and resilience as we worked to bring the lights back on. We are proud to serve you.