escape to CA

According to King 5, there are about 500,000 people in the puget sound area still without power. I have found the likely source of my power outage -- a set of downed trees and electrical wires on 3rd Ave. I'll flickr the picture later. It's complete madness. Apparently the east side is a complete mess. Campus may not be open on Monday. People may be without power for 3-5 days more across Putget Sound. I'm powered by Seattle City Light which has some good information on their site about the outage -- and the impact to Seattlites. Like this quote:

"Currently, City Light has approximately 57,188 customers without power, down from a high of 175,000 earlier Friday morning when approximately 50% of our customers were without service. A total of 65 feeders in our above-ground system went off line. Currently, 33 feeders have been restored, or partially restored. Feeders are the lines that bring electricity from substations to neighborhoods. Feeders can carry 2,000 to 4,000 customers each. As City Light works to restore service, be advised that some customers could be without power for as much as 48 - 72 hours.

Restoration of the main distribution lines in the northern and southern parts of our system continues, with the southern end having sustained more damage. As the backbone distribution lines are repaired the utility will shift efforts to restoration of the lateral feeds off the main distribution lines. There is significant lateral feeder work to do on both the northern and southern parts of our system, and lateral damage usually takes longer to repair.

Restoration Priorities (Order of restoring power)
1. Critical Infrastructure – Hospitals, etc.
2. Main distribution backbone (Feeders)
3. Largest Customer Count
4. Longest Duration of outage "

yeah, it's nasty stuff, so....I am escaping to CA for 22 hours on a pre-scheduled trip* to drop off Cuba for a few days and meet up with a slew of family members before we disperse for the holidays. I am sooo looking forward to a warm shower and hot curry. I can only hope that my home will have power restored by the time I return tomorrow.

* yes, this was pre-scheduled so i could get to the next status level on my mileage program.