A wire fell during maintenance work near Ione Place and Tallman Ave, knocking out power to 5,400 customers at 10 o’clock this morning. Most power was restored by 10:45 a.m. and full restoration of service expected at 1 p.m. According to Seattle City Light, “the general boundaries of the outage were NW 70th Street on the north, the Ship Canal on the south, Puget Sound on the west and 9th Avenue NW on the east. Not all homes and businesses in that area were affected.”
5,400 customers lose power in Ballard
OK, so just how is “Ione” pronounced? I’ve been wondering for years!
eye-owe-nee Ione
The internets say that all the classic Iones (e.g. the 1955 hurricane, the towns in Washington, Oregon, and California, the steamship, etc) are pronounced with two syllables—EYE-own—so that’s almost certainly how the street is meant to be pronounced.
That said, most folks living in Ballard today have never known or even heard of anyone with the name except for the actress Ione Skye, and she pronounces her name with three syllables, so that pronunciation is likely to be more popular. Indeed, it’s the one that I, like the other guest below, have always used. Though now that I’m aware of the historical pronunciation, I may start using two syllables. Either way, luckily there’s little risk of miscommuncation if two speakers use different pronunciations, since there’s almost nothing on that three-and-a-half-block street to (mis)communicate about.
It’d be interesting to know how Ione got its name. The town of Ione, Washington, was a lumber town, so perhaps the kindred spirits who founded Ballard decided to name a street after that mill town in Pend Oreille county. Or perhaps it was named for the steamship Ione (itself named for the town), which could have docked nearby. Or perhaps the street was named in honor of Ione Smith, born 1877, one of the seven daughters of Henry Smith—after which Smith’s Cove is named. Who knows…
Interesting that this doesn’t mention that Adams Elementary lost power for more than 30 minutes… Scary for some of the kids, but the teachers were great!