Equipment failure at substation causes brief power failure

A 30-minute power outage across parts of west Cape Girardeau darkened businesses and homes temporarily and required some fast work by police to manage traffic after the lights went out at about 6 p.m. Thursday.

Although a minor rainstorm was passing through the area, the power loss was caused by an equipment failure in an electrical substation, said Randy Mitchelson, AmerenUE spokesman. The problem was shortly found by technicians and repaired.

The outage affected about 650 customers, Mitchelson said. Some of those affected were businesses which were forced to halt sales temporarily until the power came back on at 6:25 p.m.

Police directed traffic at the intersection of William Street and Interstate 55 and at two locations on Highway 74 at Mount Auburn and Silver Springs. No accidents were reported.