HEAVY RAIN, POWER OUTAGES HIT REGION

Thunderstorms and heavy rain that pounded the region Thursday night resulted in power outages in Cape Girardeau and isolated flooding in Poplar Bluff.

The storms, brought in on 20-to-25 mph winds, hit areas of south-central Illinois, Southeast Missouri and parts of northwest Tennessee.

The storms dumped 2.15 inches of rain on Cape Girardeau. The heaviest rain was reported at Zalma, which received 2.93 inches.

Ron Fields, forecaster for the National Weather Service in Paducah, Ky., said because the area has been so dry "any rises in area creeks would have remained inside the banks."

Other than at Poplar Bluff, where water covered some streets, there were no reports of flooding.

Power was out Friday for up to three hours in the vicinity of Route K and Interstate 55 in west Cape Girardeau.

Randy Armstrong, construction supervisor for Union Electric Co., said a tree limb fell on a primary power line near Route K and burned, causing the line to melt. That resulted in an automatic shutdown of the main feeder line to the Mount Auburn substation.

Armstrong said the lines are designed to kick off when there is any trouble along the main feeder line.

"It's the same concept as a breaker in your house," he said. "The breaker goes out as a precautionary method to prevent further damage."

At 11:50 a.m. Friday, three Union Electric crews checked power lines to find the problem. Once the problem was discovered, the substation was turned back on and the jumper was cut to isolate the problem.

Power was restored to the area within an hour, but the Joseph Kirchdoerfer dairy farm west of I-55 was without power for three hours.

Armstrong said that since last year a different substation delivers power to the business area east of the outage area. As a result, the businesses, including the West Park Mall, were not affected.

"Only part of the power in the area was lost," he said. "We would have lost the whole area before the split."

Lights flickered in the mall and other businesses in the outage area, but power wasn't lost.

Some businesses and residences northeast of Route K were without power.

"We prevented a major power outage near I-55 and the outer road," Armstrong said. A tree was cut off a feeder line in that area at 8 a.m. Friday.

Another outage affected six UE customers along Highway 72.

Doug Leslie, Cape Girardeau public works director, said his department noticed very little damage from the storm.

"We just had a couple of trees down in the city that had to be removed off the streets," he said. "The damage was very minor."

In Poplar Bluff a downpour of 2.02 inches resulted in isolated flooding. Deputy Dean Gowen of the Butler County Sheriff's Department said water rose to 2 feet above road level in some areas of the city.

Poplar Bluff's Hillcrest City Park had 1 1/2 feet of water on the road. A section of Highway 67 North was covered with 2 feet of water.

There were some trees down, lightening, and a few scattered power outages at Poplar Bluff. "I haven't seen lightening like that in a long time," Gowen said. "It was the brightest and loudest I think I have ever heard."

The forecast calls for hot and humid conditions with chances of isolated thunderstorms for the next few days.