A standing-room-only crowd spilled into the foyer at The Hall at Fauntleroy for a "town hall meeting" with the King County Council about county government's response to the mid-December wind and ice storms.

The southwestern part of Seattle was hit harder than many other areas of the county so the full council met at The Hall at Fauntleroy Feb. 5 to hear from county departments and 140 citizens about what worked and what didn't.

Most of the meeting was devoted to officials from King County Emergency Management, Seattle City Light, Puget Sound Energy, Public Health - Seattle and King County, and King County Metro Transit.

West Seattleites and Vashon Islanders asked questions about the utilities' tree-trimming programs, repair priorities, and the adequacy of current budgets for utilities. People also want to replace overhead wires with buried wires.

The back-to-back windstorms blew in behind the wettest month on record. More than a million people had no electricity in the longest power outage in county history. Efforts to restore power were hampered by days of ice and freezing temperatures. Schools and most businesses were closed. Many West Seattle and White Center homes were dark and cold for five days.

The storms caused $24.8 million worth of damage, said Eric Holdeman, director of the King County Office of Emergency Management. Bad weather also led to the deaths of eight people from carbon monoxide poisoning and the illness of more than 200 other people. The victims were in homes where charcoal barbecues or diesel generators were taken indoors to supply heat.

Officials also faced the challenge of communicating when 20 percent of the public does not speak English as their day-to-day language.

A potential health problem resulted from the mid-December storms. Twenty of Metro's 27 sewage pump stations lost electricity and spilled raw sewage into the Sound.

The electrical system in the Barton Street pump station next to the Fauntleroy Ferry Dock shorted out during the storm. As a result, the sewage pump stopped functioning and about 7 million gallons of untreated sewage flowed into Fauntleroy Cove, said Don Tyler from the King County Wastewater Treatment Division.

The Murray Avenue pump station at Lowman Beach Park also lost power and sewage.

Only some of the sewage pumps have backup generators and apparently the fuel tanks are too small at some pumps. Besides, fuel trucks dispatched to the pump stations became snowbound with the rest of the stuck vehicles on the streets.

An estimated 59 million gallons of raw sewage got into Puget Sound from the West Point sewage treatment plant, Tyler said.

Another health-related problem: nine of the health department's 10 clinics lost electric power during the storms, said Michael Loehr, preparedness manager for Public Health - Seattle & King County.

The county bus system was bogged down by the storms too.

"West Seattle was one of the most affected areas," said Jim O'Rourke, operations manager for King County Metro Transit. During the stormy weather, Metro buses got stuck trying to climb both Admiral Way and Avalon Way, he said.

The long, articulated buses fared the worst in snowy conditions, he said. Smaller, one-unit buses got better traction. But tire chains frequently broke on cleared streets, he said.

Metro's four radio channels were frequently overburdened too.

"This (West Seattle) was an area especially hard hit by the storm," said Sung Yang, chief of staff for Seattle City Light. The storm was the most expensive power outage in City Light history. Half of the utility's 1 million customers were knocked offline and 34 miles of wire had to be replaced, he said.

Some people suggested burying more electrical wires underground to avoid having trees and branches blown onto electrical wires suspended from poles.

Utility representatives said "undergrounding" is expensive. It can cost seven to 10 times more than putting up standard overhead wires strung pole to pole, Yang said.

It costs Puget Sound Energy customers an average of $1,000 to $3,000 per hookup to install electrical wires underground, said Jerry Henry, senior advisor to the chairman of the utility.

Regarding tree pruning, Sung Yang said every electrical line in the City Light system is checked for interfering branches at least once every three to five years. City Light spends upward of $12 million annually for tree trimming, he said.

People also recommended utilities and county departments put more information on their Web sites. Residents asked for better explanations to the public of how the city's electrical system is arranged. They want to see how Seattle City Light's "feeder system" is set up.

One man suggested King County put together a database listing all of the skills, including tree-pruning services, offered by private contractors in the area.

Another idea from the audience concerned reciprocity among firefighters.

There are numerous, fully trained firefighters living in West Seattle. Some work for the Seattle Fire Department while others are employed by fire departments throughout King County.

If an earthquake made it impossible for firefighters employed outside Seattle to get to work, they would not be allowed to help out at any Seattle Fire Department station, a woman said. She urged that reciprocal agreements be written among local fire departments to allow help from other firefighters.

People advised officials to include water and natural gas lines along with electrical power in emergency planning.

One person recommended keeping public libraries open during emergencies.

Another person suggested having some shelters allow pets.

Yet another man advised county officials to include faith-based organizations in their emergency planning. He recently traveled to New Orleans and learned that churches were the first responders in much of Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina.

Tim St. Clair can be reached at 932-0300 or tstclair@robinsonnews.com