SPANAWAY, Wash. — Shortly after 5 a.m. on Christmas Day, Kathryn Henkel and her family were rousted by an unfamiliar quiet, a signal something was wrong.
The big-screen television in their living room, normally on through the night, cut off. So did the refrigerator — and the oxygen concentrator that helps her mother-in-law breathe.
The next lot over, a Puget Sound Energy electrical substation was dark. The constant hum of power had ceased.
