High winds brought power outages to more than 1,400 city residents Monday afternoon when two power lines collided near the U.

Tuesday, January 11, 2000

High winds brought power outages to more than 1,400 city residents Monday afternoon when two power lines collided near the U.S. 52 exit in Coal Grove.

Although the outage occurred near the village, only a handful of village electric customers were affected, American Electric Power Ashland, Ky., district manager Joe Pemberton said.

"About 1,4000 customers were without power in the Ironton area. Some of those customers, maybe about 20 or so, were in the Coal Grove area, but most of the affected customers were in the Ironton area," Pemberton said. "The outages are the result of high winds causing different types of damage to lines."

The company dispatched line repair crews to the site of the damage as well as to the substation at Third and Pleasant streets while city police battled traffic problems caused when stoplights blanked out during the outage.

For more than 90 minutes, the majority of the south end of Ironton was dark, grinding business to a halt at stores located in the immediate area.

The wind, however, showed no signs of abating, which could mean more service interruptions, Pemberton said.

"With high winds, there are several factors that can cause power outages," he said. "It’s just one of those things that is unfortunate but can happen. The weather can cause an outage at any time, but we are watching carefully and will restore service as quickly as possible when the outages occur."

Throughout the city, lights flickered on and off as the winds howled outside. Reports of a fallen electric line near the Ohio Department of Transportation Ironton garage were received, but for the 1,400 customers affected by the initial outage, AEP repair crews turned the lights back on by 4:15 p.m.

In north Ironton, an additional 130 customers experienced outages, some lasting from mid-afternoon until about 5 p.m., Pemberton added.

"A tree fell into a line causing the outages in north Ironton," he said. "The winds also were responsible for this outage."

Ironton wasn’t the only area affected by electric service interruption and high winds, Pemberton added.

"We have had several outages scattered across the coverage area because of the winds," he said. "We have been able to restore power to the customers, but the winds are causing damage in other areas."

With the National Weather Service reporting more winds throughout the day, AEP corporate communications director Melissa McHenry said there is a possibility of additional outages today. But, there also is the possibility that electric service will continue uninterrupted.

"We can never guarantee service," Ms. McHenry said. "But when outages do occur, we work to get power restored to customers as quickly as possible. This is just one of those things that happens with the weather."