Scores of
Valparaiso businesses and hundreds of their customers were affected by a
power outage on Sunday in the shopping district along Ind. 2 and Silhavy
Road.
NIPSCO spokesman
Nick Meyer told the Chesterton Tribune today that a total of 431
customers was juiceless for nearly four hours.
The outage occurred
between 1:30 and 2 p.m., Meyer said, and a NIPSCO crew immediately
responded. The crew, however, supposed that the cause of the blackout was
similar to one which impacted the same general area about a month ago, when
an animal found its way into an underground switch gear.
After being unable
to find anything wrong with those buried cables, the crew turned its
attention elsewhere and finally, in an area closer to Washington Township,
it discovered that a guy wire supporting a NIPSCO pole had broken and fallen
across an overhead line, Meyer said.
“We don’t know why
the guy wire came down,” Meyer added. “There’s a number of scenarios but
without being there and actually seeing it happen we can’t say for sure.”
The power of all
but about 40 customers was restored some three and a half hours after NIPSCO
was first notified of the problem. The rest were picked up later, Meyer
said.