NEWSLINE: MASSIVE POWER OUTAGE HITS AREA

BENTON -- A massive power outage in Chaffee, Benton, Morley, Oran and parts of Delta Tuesday night left residents without power for several hours.

A spokesman at the Scott County Sheriff's Department said the power went out about 9 p.m. in all the towns except Benton. The power came back on again at about 10:10 p.m., the spokesman said, but went out again after about five minutes, leaving those towns and Benton without power.

Cause of the outage was not known Thursday night. A spokesman for Union Electric could not be reached.

The sheriff's department said there had been no reports of accidents in the county that could have caused the outage.

UE representatives were in the towns Tuesday night trying to restore power, he said.