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. As of 11 p.m., some homes were still without power.

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

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