If you were in the dark during Wednesday’s power outage, you were not alone. A total of 2,337 McMinnville Electric System customers were effected.
“We appreciate the patience of McMinnville Electric System customers,” said Debbie Sain, MES manager of marketing and communications. “We work very hard to keep the lights on all the time, but there are things we have no control over.”
Wednesday’s lack of control was caused by a thunderstorm that moved through the area.
“According to our engineers, lighting struck the Eastside Station causing the outage,” said Sain. “The lights went out at 10:13 a.m. and were back on by 10:29 a.m.”
At 11:15 a.m., McMinnville Public Works director Bill Brock said several traffic lights were effected by the outage, with most resetting themselves when the electricity was restored.
“Some of the newer traffic lights reset themselves, while the older ones have to be reprogrammed by hand. We are in the process of reprogramming the one at Red Road and the bypass,” Brock said shortly after the outage.
The traffic light at Chancery Street and Main Street, which is new, also had to be reprogrammed by hand.
“I think there was a bad battery there,” said Brock. “I think the battery that should have stored its memory must have been dead.”
Power outages caused by the storm were not as widespread for Caney Fork Electric Cooperative. It reported only 75 to 100 of its Warren County customers were effected beginning at 9:45 a.m. The outages were mainly in the areas of Morrison and Campaign.