If you woke up to see your alarm clock flashing “12:00” you were not alone. A power outage turned off the lights for about 1,000 customers in the Lemont area overnight. The trouble began at 10:23 p.m. And it took several hours to get things fixed.
The areas affected by the outage include University Drive between Atherton St. and Easterly Parkway, Lemont, Centre Hills and Oak Hall.
Maintenance crews discovered that the top of a pole on Walnut Spring Lane had burned off.
“Usually what happens is that an insulator will get a crack in it, often from a lightening strike, and then when you get a little bit of moisture it will allow the electricity to flow out of the crack and ground and will actually catch the pole on fire. In this case it actually burned the top of the pole off and dropped the wires,” said Thomas Kearny of West Penn Power.
The pole was set back away from the road, making it difficult for crews to reach and that delayed the repair work. Electricity service was restored to all customers by 5:30 a.m.
