LIGHTNING SUSPECTED CAUSE OF POWER OUTAGE IN CITY TUESDAY

Sections of Cape Girardeau experienced a two-hour power outage early Tuesday after what utility officials believe was a lightning strike to one of the electric lines on the west side of the city.

Jim Niswonger of AmerenUE said Tuesday that shortly before 3 a.m. the utility company received a report of a power outage affecting businesses in west Cape Girardeau. About 50 percent of the West Park Mall and 60 percent of Doctors' Park were affected by the outage.

Two hotels -- Holiday Inn and the Pear Tree Inn -- were also affected, Niswonger said.

"Luckily for the mall it happened during non-business hours," he said. "But the residents of the hotel probably weren't pleased."

St. Francis Medical Center was unaffected by the loss of power even though one of the electrical feeds into the hospital was lost.

The hospital has two main lines supplying power, a main feed and an alternate feed. The alternate feed supplies power to the hospital in case the main line goes down. It was the alternate feed that loss power.

Because the alternate feed potentially supplies power to the hospital, there are not many other customers on the circuit, Niswonger said.

Even though the line runs underground, Niswonger said that the probable cause of the loss of power was a lightning strike at a point where the line goes from above ground to below ground.