Seven City Light customers still without power a week after 26 power poles fell to the ground
Video shows power pole smash into car in Tukwila, Washington
Tukwila police released new video showing the moment that a power pole came crashing down onto a car driving down the street. Source: Tukwila Police Dept. The dramatic video shows the poles start to fall last Friday just as the gray SUV drives by and then one of the poles falls right on top of the vehicle. The couple inside the SUV suffered only minor injuries.
SEATTLE -- The seven customers who are still without power a week after 26 power poles fell to the ground will have to wait another two or three weeks for their electricity to be restored, according to Seattle City Light.
In an update released Friday, the public utility said it is still working to hire a third party firm to determine what caused the poles to crash.
Dramatic video released by Tukwila Police (and shown above) showed the poles start to fall Friday afternoon, just as a gray SUV drove by, and then fell right on top of the vehicle. The couple inside the SUV suffered only minor injuries.
The mysterious crash knocked out power for more than 16,000 people, but power was restored for most by Friday night.
City Light says the 26 poles that fell on East Marginal Way South range significantly in age; the oldest two were installed in 1954 and the five newest in 2011. All were inspected in December 2016. The poles were a mixture of individually owned and jointly owned poles with both City Light and communication entities’ equipment attached.
"The good news is that we’ve secured the poles and infrastructure that came down last Friday ... One of the focus areas for the investigation will be whether we are replacing identified poles at an appropriate pace," officials said.
As for the seven customers (13 meters) still impacted by the outage, City Light says it's working with them on a case-by-case basis to "determine and meet their specific energy needs."
"Crews will be working 12 hours, seven days a week to get power restored to this area," officials said.