lose electricity after tree hits line

About 8,000 customers were without power early this morning after a tree fell on a main transmission line on Lee Road.

Because the line is a major one, the outage affected the Raymond substation, the Edwards substation and the East Vicksburg substation near Porters Chapel Academy.

The high-voltage transmission line is a major line that comes from the main Baxter Wilson Power Plant on Waring Road near the Mississippi River.

Service was restored to about 6,000 customers in about 10 minutes, however, there were still about 2,000 customers in Vicksburg who were left in the dark for an additional 1 1/2 hours, said Don Arnold, Entergy Mississippi customer service manager.

Around 10 this morning, an electrical pole caught on fire, also known as an electrical flash-over, causing 200 more customers to lose power in the Porters Chapel Road, Indiana Avenue and South Frontage Road area.

Entergy officials had not yet determined the cause of the fire, Arnold said.