Nearly 2,000 in dark after power outage
Published 12:22 am Sunday, July 22, 2012
One power outage after another darkened residences and closed businesses Saturday.
Up to 1,972 customers were without power at the height of the outages, Entergy spokesman Don Arnold said, and about 500 lost electricity for a second time about two hours after the initial restoration.
The second outage was caused when a transmission power line on Cherry Street burned, he said.
Surges from the breaking line were so powerful that they shattered the sidewalk and remained hot enough to crystallize the sand-based dirt below.
An area from Belmont Street south along Cherry and Halls Ferry Road to Interstate 20 remained dark at just before midnight.
The first outage, at about 3 p.m., was more widespread, including along Pemberton Square Boulevard and U.S. 61 South.
A faulty breaker at an Entergy substation on Mulberry Street was blamed for the first outage, Arnold said.
“Most of that was in the southwest part of the city,” he said.
The second outage was a result of the first, Arnold said, in that one of four initially affected breakers could not work to its prescribed capacity.
The three-hour afternoon outage forced many business along Pemberton Square Boulevard and Iowa Avenue to shut down for the afternoon.
Customers said Walmart was without power for three hours, initially reducing checkout to one lane before closing. Walgreens and Whataburger posted handwritten signs on their doors saying they were closed for the duration of the outage. Some gas stations in the affected area closed while others used calculators to manually keep track of receipts.
Traffic lights were out on Pemberton and Halls Ferry, forcing traffic to a bumper-to-bumper at the South Frontage road intersection.
The substation circuit is expected to be repaired Monday but shouldn’t affect customers when it’s restored, Arnold said.
“You might see just a blink in the lights for a second,” he said.