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12/11/2011 6:51 PM 

A car accident snapped off the power pole at Dockton and Pt. Robinson roads last night about 6 PM. Unfortunately the accident curiously snapped the pole up about 20 feet high and took out the island’s primary electrical power feed. While most of island only experienced a 10 second outage, about 500 PSE customers had a couple hour service interruption. 1200 Maury Island people didn’t have power (and Comcast service) fully restored until about 3:30 PM today.

During the event Rick Frye wrote the following note to the Vashon-Maury Island Radio Club’s email group, which I thought a great reflection on the event:

And while I don’t know anything about the particulars in this case, I do know that sometimes – especially when a pole breaks – a lower voltage line can come into contact with a higher voltage line and this will cause the lower voltage line to become hyper-energized leading to problems along that line that might wipe out a circuit breaker or two and/or transformers that may need to be replaced.  From the sound of things, it seems like there is more than a single thing that is in need of repair.

But the silver lining is that some people who have not had to do so recently have had the experience of identifying alternative sources of heat and light and, hopefully, are finding out anew where their own bottle necks are and how to circumnavigate those issues.  It’s a good reminder to keep some blue ice in our freezers and ensure that our butane stoves and generators are operational, etc.

For those of you who are within or near the outage zone, check on your neighbors and if you have a generator and they don’t, some serious extension cords and some power for an hour or so can save the contents of their freezer/fridge.  It’s a good time to reach out and touch any neighbors you don’t yet know very well and to reestablish any relationships that may have lost their connection.

Rick, KUØW

These minor outages certainly do keep us on our toes and serve a very useful reminder to stay prepared! Thanks to Rick for permission to repost his excellent message.

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Tags: Power Outage , Maury Island , PSE , Preparedness

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