Friday storm causes brief power outage

An afternoon storm flipped off the power switch for about 4,000 Municipal Utilities customers on the western side of Poplar Bluff at 4:46 p.m. Friday. Crews had the power restored in 53 minutes.

Municipal Utilities Electric Supervisor Lyndell Coleman said, “We appreciate everyone’s patience.”

Coleman explained, if the storm had happened 16 minutes earlier, before the five employees had left work, the crew could have restored power in half the time.

The crew had to be called back in to restore power.

“We were in a tricky situation,” Coleman said. “The downed tree was located behind the Poplar Bluff License office at 2509 Three Rivers Blvd., which is near Bill and Gene’s Rental Center at 2525 N. Westwood Blvd.

When the crew was in the air cutting the tree, Coleman said, every time they cut a limb, the other branches would move.