Nearly 150 Union Electric customers in Cape Girardeau were without power for more than nine hours Friday after an underground cable failed.

The outage occurred at 2:52 a.m. and affected a four-block area in the Lexington and Brookshire neighborhood on the city's north side.

Power was restored around noon, said Jim Ramage, UE district superintendent.

Ramage said the underground cable in that area is probably 15 to 20 years old.

He said a hole in the insulation resulted in an electrical charge, making contact with the ground and blowing a fuse.

Ramage said such outages take time to find.

"It it is not up on a pole where you can see it," he said. "It is pretty involved."

Ramage said UE previously had replaced some of its underground cables in the Lexington area and plans to replace more of the underground lines.