CAPE GIRARDEAU WAL-MART STORE LOSES POWER FOR NEARLY 24 HOURS

Wal-Mart lost thousands of dollars in perishable food Tuesday night and Wednesday after lightning struck a transformer that powered refrigeration units at the store.

Steve Smith, co-director of Cape Girardeau's Wal-Mart, said the lightening struck at about 10:30 p.m. Tuesday. Maintenance personnel first tried to replace the fuses, then discovered that the entire transformer was damaged.

Another one had to be shipped to Cape Girardeau, and it wasn't operational until 8 p.m. Wednesday. In the meantime, Wal-Mart had no electricity on its supermarket side and no air conditioning throughout the building.

Staff spent the day throwing away milk, meat and other perishable items that were ruined.

"We had a lot more people who were curious about Wal-Mart than those irritated about the power being out, and we appreciated that," Smith said.

"We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience."