Outage Sparks False Alarms -- Medina, Clyde Hill Lose Power

BELLEVUE

A transmission problem on a power line in the Medina and Clyde Hill areas yesterday afternoon left about 4,500 Puget Sound Energy customers without electricity and triggered a rash of false security alarms.

Puget Sound Energy received its first power-outage report about 2:20 p.m. Crews scoured areas around two power substations in Medina and Clyde Hill but didn't find the source of the problem.

"Something caused the transmission line to be knocked out," said Dorothy Bracken, a company spokeswoman. "It could be that a limb or tree at some point brushed against it."

The overhead power line supplies electricity mostly to houses in the Medina and Clyde Hill areas. But shoppers and employees at Bellevue Square also watched lights and computer screens blink off.

"Everything went dead for about 15 seconds," said Jason Stanfill, a clerk at Radio Shack in the mall.

Bellevue police officers responded to at least seven homes and businesses, mostly downtown, to check security alarms that turned out to be duds. A couple of traffic signals also lost power.

"We were scurrying around for a short time," said Lt. David Morrison of the Bellevue Police Department. "It wasn't very long."

Although the outage at Bellevue Square lasted less than a minute, others weren't so lucky. Residents in Clyde Hill and Medina had to wait 90 minutes before their power was rerouted and restored about 3:50 p.m.