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Your Weekly Update on What's Happening at the King County Council
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Dear Friends and Neighbors,
As we continue to recover from the historic windstorm in our region, I have been in contact with all of the Mayors in the district and am working to get our communities all the resources they need.
King County Executive Dow Constantine has issued an Emergency Proclamation that allows the Executive to utilize personnel, services, and equipment for the management of this emergency. In addition, King County Emergency Management is helping coordinate a comprehensive approach to managing this emergency event, with a whole of County effort, including all of the cities and other partners.
My office has received a number of updates this morning from various agencies and partners, and I have shared them below. If there is any way my office can be of assistance to you, please do not hesitate to reach out to me!
All my best,
 Reagan Dunn
King County Councilmember
District 9
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To our customers without power: we know you are frustrated. The limited information we have been able to provide on-line, and the fact that you do not yet see our crews working in your neighborhood, is causing you to wonder what is happening.
This system was so strong that it was comparable to a hurricane and did unprecedented damage to our high-voltage transmission system – the poles and wires that carry electricity from where it is produced to the communities we serve. Without fixing those lines first, we cannot get power back into many neighborhoods. Much of this work takes place in hard to reach, remote parts of western Washington.
We have 143 line crews working around the clock – 3.5 times what we have usually, thanks to crews from other utilities in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Canada.
We do know there is work to do on the distribution lines that run through neighborhoods and we will get to that work as soon as possible. We have been prioritizing critical community assets like schools and hospitals.
As of 6 a.m. we have 166,635 customers out. In the past 24 hours, we’ve restored power to an estimated 120,000 customers.
We understand it can be frustrating waking up to continued power outages in the cold. For customers looking for resources, please check for information from 211, your local jurisdictions or media sources:
PSE will have two info resource hubs where customers can get basic support, including charging for small devices, Wi-Fi, water, coffee, light snacks and information from PSE staff. Please note that these staff have the same restoration information available as the outage map and cannot provide individualized customer restoration info.
Hours are: 10-5, Friday, November 22
In the parking lots of the following locations:
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Maple Valley Fred Meyer located at Maple Valley Town Square - 26520 Maple Valley Black Diamond Rd SE, Maple Valley
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Kent Fred Meyer - 10201 SE 240th St, Kent
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Staff will be present at the Issaquah Warming Shelter - Issaquah Senior Center 75 NE Creek Way, Issaquah, WA 98027
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Road Services and Power Companies: Teams are working hard to clear roads and restore power. Many trees have fallen and tangled with power lines, making some roads impassable.
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Crews on the Ground: Hundreds of crew members are out there, prioritizing roads used by emergency services and near important public safety facilities like hospitals.
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Never cross a road closed with barricades: These are set up for your safety. Always use a detour.
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Avoid downed power lines: They might still be live and very dangerous.
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Stay Updated: Check kingcounty.gov/MyCommute for the latest information on road closures. Traffic cameras are currently offline due to the windstorm.
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Report Problems: If you see an issue such as a downed sign, signal outage, or blocked road, call the 24/7 Road Helpline at 206-477-8100 or email maint.roads@kingcounty.gov.
With widespread power outages persisting across Western Washington, free Xfinity WiFi Hotspots will remain open to the public through Monday, 11/25.
To help keep our communities connected until power is restored, Comcast’s network of more than 66,000 public Xfinity WiFi hotspots in the impacted areas in Western Washington are now available and free for anyone to use, including non-Xfinity customers.
For a map of public Xfinity WiFi hotspots, which are located both indoors and outdoors in places such as shopping districts, parks, and businesses, visit the Xfinity WiFi Hotspot Map
When a hotspot is within range, select the “xfinitywifi” network on a device’s list of available networks and launch a browser. Sign-in options will appear for both Xfinity customers and non-customers.
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