Powerless Tesla drivers storm Seattle-area grocery store to recharge during outages

A line of sleek cars snaked through the parking lot at the Fred Meyer grocery store in Kirkland on Thursday.

Not just any car: These were Teslas — down to a few bars of power.

It was the third day without power for over a quarter million people on Seattle’s eastside. No electricity means no charging electric vehicles.

Kyle Walker, in a shiny black Tesla, said he arrived with 1% battery.

“This was the only Tesla charger that we could find that was reasonably close,” Walker said.

He made the nail-biting, 30-minute drive from Sammamish, where he hasn’t had power since Tuesday.

Walker, close to the front of the line, said he had been there almost three hours. He worried his car didn’t have enough power to wait for a charger.

To maintain order in the parking lot, Fred Meyer employees brought out orange construction cones and wore bright green vests to direct traffic.

They guided silent, close-to-death Teslas into the next available charging slot like an aircraft marshal directing a plane into its gate at the airport.

“The manager here was great,” Walker said, “he said that he had gone to traffic school several years ago.”

Said manager fervently waved his hands at Tesla drivers in line. He declined to be interviewed.

Fred Meyer ultimately helped Walker by handing him a 20-foot orange extension cord plugged inside the back of Fred Meyer.

“The nice people here let us plug in because we were so low on battery that we don't know if we can actually wait in line,” Walker said.

Nearly everyone in line had tried other places before coming to this charging station in Totem Lake. Some said they went to Bellevue but the line there was even longer.

One employee said the charging station can get busy but they had never seen a line stretch into the parking lot.

Some people got out of their cars like they were lined up for a ferry and walked their dog in the parking lot.

The Tesla drivers went inside the grocery store, mingling with shoppers buying canned soup and coolers. Store employees worried they might run out of bagged ice or propane tanks.

Walker recognized at least two people who had also come from Sammamish to find a charging station. He said they were “all in the same boat.”

One of them was Moiz Mughal, waiting with his brother.

“It was packed when we got here,” Mughal said, pointing to the far end of the parking lot. “We were way over there.”

Mughal said the chargers he goes to in Issaquah and Sammamish were out of service. With his Tesla being his only wheels, he had no choice but to drive west and find a working charger.

After almost three hours of waiting, suddenly Walker got a frantic wave from a green vest-clad employee at the other end of the parking lot.

“That’s my cue!” Walker exclaimed and he hurried to move his car.

Before leaving, Walker handed off the extension cord to Mughal to use while he waited. Mughal would pass it on when it was his turn.

“It's hard times right now,” Mughal said as he jammed the cord into the car, “but it's nice to see that people are working together and like trying to help each other.”