By James Tabafunda
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
In September, at least 185 people in the Chinatown-International District (CID) found themselves without power for four nights in a row. But they didn’t get an explanation, leaving many in the literal and figurative dark for hours overnight.
At an Oct. 28 meeting, Seattle City Light (SCL) leaders apologized to CID business owners and residents for the power outages. About 60 small-business owners, organization representatives, and residents attended the community meeting at Tabletop Village.
Though SCL said the outages were pre-planned, it admitted that it gave most affected customers too little notice—and no notice at all to 46 more.
The utility cut power to about 185 customers from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. between Sept. 14 and Sept. 17, while crews upgraded underground equipment damaged in a July 30 vault fire, according to a SCL briefing document distributed at the meeting.
But some who spoke at the meeting said that the outage spread well beyond what SCL described.
One block became many
Tuyen Than, executive director of the CID Business Improvement Area, said at the meeting that a SCL representative told her by phone on Sept. 14 that the work would affect only one block of 8th Avenue South, between South Weller and South Dearborn.
Tuyen Than, executive director of the Chinatown-International District Business Improvement Area. Photo by James Tabafunda.
But a few hours later, the power went out over a much larger area.
“The footprint was spanning at least two additional blocks,” Than said. “I had walked around the neighborhood, and it also included parts of Japantown.”
She said one business owner on 7th Avenue South had expected one night without electricity. Days before the work began, the business owner received a second door hanger adding three more nights.
The business owner had to scramble to shut down, plan for four nights without power, and brace for lost revenue.
Than said diners at Chengdu Memory, a hot pot restaurant in the outage area, kept eating by the light of their phones after the power went out.
“When there’s no power, that also means there’s no internet, there’s no security, there’s no lights,” she said.
Meeting attendees watched a video by a CID resident, who started taking video after losing power while cooking dinner.
“You have to remember we have 5,000 residents here, 2,000 of which are elderly,” said Amy Chen Lozano, a member of the CID Vision Group.
Advance notice fell short
Rob Santoff, SCL’s interim general manager and chief executive officer, opened the utility’s presentation with an apology.
Rob Santoff, interim general manager and chief executive officer of Seattle City Light. Photo by James Tabafunda.
“We had a lack of communication. And that led to a significant impact for you and your community,” he said. “And so again, I want to apologize for that personally and apologize on behalf of Seattle City Light.”
SCL’s standard is at least five days’ notice, delivered by door hangers, according to the briefing document.
Brendan Armstrong, the utility’s interim chief operating officer, said the utility needed to repair electrical system infrastructure damage from a July vault fire. Crews restored power at the time, but those repairs were temporary. SCL needed to install permanent underground equipment across about four blocks, work that would require cutting power to those areas.
The utility originally planned one overnight outage for Sept. 17 and delivered notices on Sept. 4 and Sept. 8.
On Sept. 11, crews identified additional work that had to be completed before the initially planned job. SCL decided to start on Sept. 14 and notified some customers that same day, three days ahead of the original start date.
Armstrong said the short notice did not meet SCL’s commitment to customers. He also said that a separate mapping error meant that SCL failed to notify 46 customers, and that SCL’s system did not show that the equipment also fed an overhead line serving other buildings.
“We should have rescheduled this work,” Armstrong said.
Santoff later told one business owner at the meeting that only the original Sept. 17 outage had proper advance notice.
According to the document, SCL completed the work on Sept. 18. It said it did not plan any further outages.
Changes to the system
An SCL briefing document said that the utility has updated its system to include the 46 customers it failed to notify. Outages scheduled on short notice now also require a director’s approval, the document said.
SCL has also added a secondary review of outage notification timelines. In the future, customers will also receive door hanger notifications in 10 different languages. The hangers will include a contact phone number, and interpreters will also be available through the customer care center.
The utility is also piloting a text and email alert program for unplanned outages, but hopes to expand it to give advance notice of planned outages.
For now, said Kate Jacobs, SCL’s media relations manager, the outage map is the best resource for customers to utilize. It provides “as close to real-time information as possible when there is a planned outage or an unplanned outage,” she said.
Filing claims: “The sooner, the better”
SCL leaders asked customers who lost food, revenue, or wages to submit damage claims with the city by Nov. 30.
The utility will provide in-person meetings with interpreters and a claims expert for customers who need help in their own language, according to the briefing document.
Language help is also available at 206-256-5200.
At a minimum, a claim must include the claimant’s name, address, and a brief description of the loss with an estimated value, according to the briefing document. The document gave this example: “Due to a power outage on [DATE], I lost approximately $200 worth of food in my refrigerator.”
The city’s damage claim page says claim forms must be signed, and unsigned forms will be returned, and advises filing by only one method, because duplicate claims for the same incident delay handling.
SCL customers can file through the city’s online portal, mail a paper form to the City Clerk’s Office at P.O. Box 94728, Seattle, WA 98124-4728, or leave a form in the drop box at 600 Fourth Avenue, third floor, according to the briefing document.
Jeff Wolf, SCL’s director of legal affairs, said receipts are not required at the start but may speed up the review. Employees, rather than businesses, must file their own claims for lost wages, he said. People may also describe emotional or other damages in a claim.
The city aims to resolve simple claims within a few weeks. Complex claims may take up to 60 days, he said.
Wolf said business owners who want to be part of the expedited review should submit claims as soon as possible: “The sooner, the better.”
Ongoing loss
But some residents may never see reimbursement for loss.
Michael Itti, executive director of the Chinese Information and Service Center, said his agency serves many older residents in the neighborhood. In some buildings, all 100 residents do not speak English and do not have email, he said.
Itti said one of his employees, working late, could not get a car out of a garage because the door would not open—“and that [was] a relatively minor issue.”
“But the biggest issue, of course, is that a lot of families, making dinner, trying to do homework, having settled days in a row, lost power,” Itti said. “And of course, businesses—how do you store a frozen fish when you can’t, especially where the freezer only lasts for so many hours?”
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