USA, Washington, Puyallup: A widespread power outage affected more than 23,000 customers in the Puyallup area, including South Hill and Summit, on 11 February. The outage began at around 9:06 a.m. but power was restored to nearly all impacted customers by 10:38 a.m., according to Puget Sound Energy (PSE).
PSE spokesperson Gerald Tracy explained that the interruption occurred when a bird struck a transmission line while crews were performing maintenance, causing four substations to go offline. “We are restoring power through switching, essentially rerouting electricity to affected areas,” Tracy said.
Earlier estimates suggested electricity would return by 12:30 p.m., but crews were able to restore service much sooner than expected. By just before 11 a.m., PSE’s outage map showed that all but two customers had their power back.
The incident serves as a reminder of how vulnerable electrical infrastructure can be to wildlife and other unexpected events, and how crews work quickly to minimise disruption.
Source: The News Tribune
