More than 4,500 homes and businesses across West Seattle and South Park lost electricity Friday evening after a pole fire, as a fall storm system moved through the region. The outage followed a July 22 blackout affecting West Seattle, White Center, and South Park.
According to West Seattle Blog, the outage was first reported at 5:40 pm on Friday, and the Seattle City Light outage map showed the affected area stretching into part of South Park. The cause was initially unknown, though trees were reported down in the area; a Seattle City Light spokesperson later identified a pole fire as the cause. The map showed everyone back on by 6:27 p.m., while a later update listed 155 homes still without power at 7:32 p.m.
The blackout came as a strong fall low-pressure system rolled across western Washington, prompting a National Weather Service wind advisory and gusts between 30 and 45 mph, according to KING 5. Across the broader region, the storm knocked out power to more than 60,000 electricity customers as it moved onshore, bringing rain and scattered tree damage throughout the Puget Sound area.
Flooding and Falling Leaves Snarled Traffic
The same storm system created hazardous driving conditions well beyond the power grid. Roughly an inch of standing water pooled on the West Seattle Bridge off-ramp leading to Southwest Admiral Way, as reported by FOX 13 Seattle. Downed trees were reported in multiple locations around the Puget Sound region as the storm moved through.
Earlier West Seattle Outages
Friday's outage followed a July 22 blackout affecting West Seattle, White Center, and South Park. On July 22, a garbage truck pulled down overhead utility wires near 16th Avenue SW and SW Myrtle Street, cutting power to more than 2,100 Seattle City Light customers across West Seattle, White Center, and South Park — a story Hoodline covered in Garbage Truck Tangles Wires Plunges Dark. Police closed the intersection while crews secured the downed lines.
Then on July 30, fallen tree limbs in North Admiral knocked out electricity to more than 4,400 homes and businesses across West Seattle, an outage that also set off commercial security alarms throughout the neighborhood, per the same West Seattle Blog reporting. The pattern points to a structural vulnerability: overhead power lines running throughout West Seattle make the neighborhood especially exposed to tree branch interference during storms.
How Seattle's Grid Is Organized
Seattle City Light delivers electricity to more than 503,000 business and residential customer premises across a 131-square-mile service area and operates 16 major substations, according to the utility's own account on Seattle.gov.
In minutes dated September 17, 2025, utility leaders said reliability performance had fallen below average among peer Large Public Power Council utilities.
