Staff Writer

Power was cut off to several areas of Troy Wednesday for approximately thirty minutes when a guide wire around the Park Street water tower fell onto a transmitter.

James Flowers, general manager for the Troy Utilities Department, said the power outage occurred around noon.

"A guide wire from around where they were painting the water tower fell onto a transmitter which connects to a substation," Flowers said. That caused a circuit breaker at the substation to activate, cutting off the power.

Flowers said the power outage was concentrated primarily in the south side of Troy. The north side lost power briefly when a circuit breaker was tripped at a Union Springs substation, but the power came back on quickly.

Flowers said the power was out for 20-30 minutes.

"It took us about four or five minutes to ascertain where the problem was and to send equipment out to repair it," Flowers said. Once they arrived at the scene, city workers proceeded to clear the lines so that power could be restored.

Sgt. Benny Scarborough of the Troy Police Department said police acted quickly to help keep the situation under control.

"Traffic lights were out at several locations and we sent officers to those areas to direct traffic," Scarborough said. "We also received a lot of calls at the station from people concerned about the power outage and we tried to keep people informed about what was going on."

"We tried to handle everything as routinely as possible," Scarborough said.

Scarborough said there was at least one car accident around the time of the power outage but did not know if it was directly related to the power being out.

The circuit breakers are designed to activate whenever there is a problem along the lines.

"They are similar to the circuit breakers you have in your home only much larger," Flowers said. "The system did exactly what it was supposed to do."