Crime & Safety

Mylar Balloons Temporarily Knock Out Power on Mercer Island

Puget Sound Energy says a cluster of balloons caused 3,000 homes to lose power for several hours Wednesday evening.

Power company Puget Sound Energy says a cluster of mylar balloons is to blame for knocking out power on Mercer Island to around 3,000 homes on Wednesday evening.

Puget Sound Energy spokesperson Lindsey Walimaki said a repair technician was dispatched to Mercer Island at around 5 p.m. after receiving scattered reports of a power outage there.

The PSE technician located a bunch of mylar balloons that floated into wiring at the Mercerwood power substation, located at 8903 SE 44th Street. That caused a fuse to open and disrupted the flow of power to about a quarter of all of Mercer Island. Power was restored before 7:30 to all affected homes.

Find out what's happening in Mercer Islandwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"It's kind of flukey thing," said Walimaki. "But it's important to realize there are impacts to letting balloons go and they can disrupt our system."


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

To request removal of your name from an arrest report, submit these required items to arrestreports@patch.com.

More from Mercer Island