Metropolitan King County Councilmember Dow Constantine today requested a formal Council review of the local response to last Thursday’s massive windstorm, to see what lessons can be learned from the natural disaster that left trees toppled, roads blocked, and hundreds of thousands of King County households without electricity for days.

“Utility crews have made a heroic effort to bring power back to every home and government employees have worked hard to ensure critical services are available to all residents,” said Constantine, whose Eighth Council District includes many hard-hit Southwest Seattle neighborhoods and suburban cities. “Clearly, we can and must learn to do things better.”

Downed electricity lines caused major power outages throughout Constantine’s council district, across West Seattle, in the cities of Burien and Normandy Park, and on Vashon and Maury Islands. King County’s two major electricity providers—Seattle City Light and Puget Sound Energy—each saw more than half of their customers left in the dark for times ranging from a few hours to several days.

Regionally, more that a million homes and businesses lost power. The storm contributed to 13 deaths, and damage within King County has been estimated at $9.8 million.

Constantine proposed the Council review how governments, utilities and citizens prepared for and reacted to this major event—and what each can do now to be better prepared in the future.

“It’s important that utility officials, government representatives, emergency preparedness experts, and the public get a chance to discuss what was done well in reaction to this storm, what failings there were in the system, and what we can learn from both,” said Constantine.

Constantine said the Council review should commence in the first few weeks of the new year. “First things first: every home and business needs to get the power back on, folks need a chance to pause and celebrate the holidays, and the cleanup and repair needs to be finished. Then we need to roll up our sleeves and get to work on preparing for the next major event – whatever may come.”