HIGH WINDS CAUSE CITY POWER OUTAGE; BUSINESSES REPORT LOSS DUE TO FAILURE

Some businesses along Broadway were cleaning up and making repairs Monday after a power outage Sunday.

High winds on Sunday might have blown a high-voltage power line feeding the Union Electric Clark Street substation into another line, eliminating power to a quarter of UE's Cape Girardeau customers and knocking out nine stop lights.

UE District Manager Doug Groesbeck said the cause of the accident had not been determined but he said gusty winds might have contributed. He said a 34,000-volt feeder line into the substation came in contact with a 4,000-volt line that goes out to customers.

The ensuing power surge knocked out fuses and reclosers -- essentially circuit breakers -- throughout the substation's service area. This deprived approximately 7,000 customers of power.

When the lines met, Groesbeck said, the result would have been loud. "We had customers reporting an explosion. Most of them thought a transformer blew," he said.

The accident happened at about 2:54 p.m. Sunday. As of 9:30 p.m., all but 200 customers had power restored, Groesbeck said.

Correcting this problem was easier than dealing with spot interruptions of power that commonly occur during bad weather. He said crews replaced the fuses and fixed reclosers, restoring power to 500 customers at a time in some cases.

Most of the power outages occurred north of the substation at Clark Avenue and Dunklin Street. Groesbeck said residential and commercial customers were affected.

Groesbeck said UE workers were responding Monday to customer calls about damages caused by the power outage. He said in some cases, like worker error, UE will take responsibility for the losses. He said the company will make that determination about Sunday's power problem once the cause has been discovered.

Lance Keller, owner of Ken's Cape Cleaners at 1704 Broadway, lost more than a day's business and two motors because of a power surge Sunday. The motors from a vacuum that services all eight of Keller's presses were destroyed and had to be replaced.

Keller said he was able to do some dry cleaning but was unable to do any pressing. "We can clean up to a point," he said.

Keller expected both motors to be replaced today and the cleaner would be back to full operation by late this afternoon. "I'm hoping," he said. "I'm going to be way behind when I get there, though."

Keller said a UE crew came out Monday morning to take a look at the damage. "They're investigating," he said. "They'll get back to me."

Dee Muller, a Kwik Pantry district manager, said the Kwik Pantry Food Store at 1702 Broadway lost 37 gallons of milk to the power outage.

Muller said power was down in the shop from 3 to nearly 7:30 p.m. but inadequate power was supplied to the store to operate its coolers and air conditioner. Those stayed off through the night and caused the milk to spoil.

Muller said she was not considering trying to recoup the money from the lost milk, which totals a little more than $74.

Cape Girardeau police Sgt. J.R. Davis said stop lights at five intersections lost power. Broadway and Perryville Road and Broadway and Kingshighway were down for the longest time.

UE workers switched power to Kingshighway and Cape Rock Road, Kingshighway and Lexington and Center Junction quickly and got those lights back on line, Davis said.

Davis said there was only one accident in any of those areas during the time the lights were down. But that accident, which was north of the intersection of Cape Rock and Kingshighway, was not being blamed on the light.