People without power over the last few days

The graph at right illustrates the number of Puget Sound Energy and Seattle City Light customers without power due to the totally radical wind storm we suffered last Thursday night.

In all, it's estimated that 1.5 million people lost their power. However, the greater Puget Sound err, region is served by at least a half-dozen different utilities, and so the graph at right doesn't reflect the total number of customers out.

You'll notice that Seattle City Light was able to drive its outage numbers down much quicker than PSE—but Light services primarily urbanized areas with submerged lines and few trees, whereas Energy is responsible for areas typically referred to as "BFE."

All of this is the work of over 600 energy crews, many trucked in from surrounding states. Most (all?) have been working 17 hour shifts with 7 hours off, which puts them all in the "heroic" category.

Way to go, linemen. Rock rock on.

P.S. I've since found out that the local utilities have paid out between $10 million and $15 million in overtime in the last week, which puts all the line workers in the "heroic but bringing home the bacon" category.