Fallen tree limb responsible for Thursday evening Cape Girardeau power outage

A fallen tree limb is responsible for a Thursday evening power outage in Cape Girardeau that affected about 1,100 AmerenUE customers. Around 8:30 p.m. Thursday, a tree limb came in contact with a power line near 3210 Independence St., according to AmerenUE spokesman Michael Cleary. All but 162 residents had their power restored by 10:42 p.m. The remaining customers had power restored by 1:30 a.m. while repairs were being completed.

"This was an insulated line, so normally a tree contact shouldn't be a problem," Cleary said. "But in this case, the limb had apparently been rubbing against the line and this caused the insulation to fail. The problem did not appear to be storm-related."