EARLY-MORNING POWER OUTAGE PROMPTS A BOIL-WATER ORDER

A faulty cable is blamed for an early morning power outage that affected Union Electric customers in parts of northern Cape Girardeau and in the Egypt Mills area on Thursday.

Temperatures were in the low teens when the electricity went off. The low at the airport was 14 degrees at 7 a.m.

Because of the power failure, a 36-hour, precautionary boil water order was issued at midday Thursday for residents living in Cape Rock Village, Tanglewood Estates and Hidden Valley, and those living along Cape Rock Drive and North Sprigg Street Road in the vicinity of Cape Rock Village.

"This is only a precautionary boil water order," said Tom Taggart, water systems manager for Alliance Water Resources, which handles water operations for the city of Cape Girardeau.

"No contamination of the water system in that area has been detected or expected. However, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources recommends a boil water order be issued when the water pressure in the main falls below 20 pounds per square inch.

"When the power went off, it knocked out our underground water main pumps on Cape Rock Drive, north of Lexington."

Taggart said the boil order is only for drinking and cooking water. Water used for other purposes need not be boiled. He said the boil order will expire at midnight Friday, after water samples have been taken, analyzed and confirmed safe.

Union Electric spokesman Bob Talley said the outage occurred at around 4 a.m., when one phase of a three-phase, 34,500-volt distribution line from UE's Viaduct Court Distribution Center burned out at the corner of North Sprigg and Olive. Talley said the 34.5 KV line feeds the Cape Rock Village substation, at the intersection of North Cape Rock Drive and North Sprigg Street Road.

Talley said the Cape Rock Village substation serves UE customers in all of Cape Rock Village, along North Sprigg Street Road, and the area along Cape Rock Drive to Perry Avenue and Bertling, east to a point near North Sprigg Street Road.

The Oak Hill and Amblewood subdivisions on Cape Rock Drive were affected by the outage, as were residents who live along Highway 177 toward Egypt Mills.

Power was finally restored at about 8:45 a.m.

"We had to restore service circuit by circuit because of the heavy load demand due to the cold weather," said Talley. "We're not sure what caused the line to burn out. It could have been the cold weather or some other defect.

"We found the problem right away. It just took a little longer than it would have if the problem had occurred in the daytime because we had to call out a crew and get them and their vehicle on the road, then isolate the circuit so we could repair the damaged line."

A similar power failure earlier this week on a distribution line on East Nash Road left many residents of Scott City and the Nash Road area without power for several hours.