Power outages delay start times at Olympia, Tumwater schools Thursday morning
Two power outages affected large swaths of north Tumwater and southeast Olympia Thursday morning, and delayed start times at four schools.
The Puget Sound Energy Outage Map showed a Tumwater outage southwest of Capitol Lake that was impacting at least 2,585 customers since 6:40 a.m. A similar large outage affected part of Olympia east of Interstate 5 and south of Watershed Park. That outage impacted at least 2,109 customers since 6:40 a.m. as well.
In both cases, PSE estimated power would be restored by 10 a.m. However, both outages were gone from the outage map by 8:45 a.m.
The Olympian asked PSE to elaborate on what caused the outages. In an emailed statement, Media Engagement Consultant Andrew Padula said both outages were caused by “equipment failure.” He said feeder lines went bad on both circuits.
Systems operations staff did “some switching” and manged to return power to all customers by 8:35 a.m., Padula said.
Tumwater School District announced that Tumwater Hill Elementary would start two hours late due to no power. The district also canceled morning and afternoon preschool at the elementary school.
“We will continue to monitor the situation closely,” the district shared on its website. “If power is not restored by the estimated time, we will communicate further regarding a possible school closure.”
Olympia School District announced a three-hour late start for Pioneer Elementary School, Washington Middle School and Olympia High School.
“PSE tentatively estimates power to be restored by 10 a.m.,” the district shared on its website. “If this estimate should change, we will send follow-up communications regarding next steps.”
The Briggs Community YMCA in Olympia also closed due to the power outage but the facility reopened by around 9 a.m. when power there was restored.
This story was originally published April 17, 2025 at 8:50 AM.
