More than 1,700 AmerenUE customers in Cape Girardeau County spent at least three hours without electricity Thursday night.

The power went out around 7:30 p.m. according to an Ameren spokeswoman, who said the outage happened when a switch to a 12,000-volt line failed.

No one was injured, according to information available at press time.

Switchboards lit up at Cape Girardeau Police Department and the city of Jackson's electric utility, neither of which was affected by the outage. The lights stayed on for those in the city of Cape Girardeau's core community, close to the riverfront.

The lights went out for customers as far north as Shawneetown, as far south, but not including, Cape Girardeau Regional Airport and just west of Gordonville.

 

Cape Girardeau Police Department received several calls from people about the outage, but no one was injured, according to the police dispatcher.