BROOKINGS An hour-long power outage in Brookings on Wednesday evening that affected 1,190 customers was caused by a contractor driving a fence post into an underground electric cable.
Thats the word from Russell Halgerson, who manages the electric department at Brookings Municipal Utilities. He said the outage began at 5:28 p.m. and affected the west-central portion of the city.
We will continue to educate and communicate with contractors on how to understand and properly work around locate marks and underground facilities, Halgerson noted in an interview with the Brookings Register.
There were no traffic accidents related to the outage, according to Brookings Police Department Chief Michael Drake. He said officers helped with traffic flow by placing temporary stop signs at the intersections whose signals were knocked out by the power outage.
Halgerson, meanwhile, offered some advice to folks looking to dig holes.
As a homeowner, please remember to call 811 before you dig, whether its a small home project or a large construction job, he said. Contacting 811 allows utilities to locate their underground facilities and helps you complete your project safely.
He said that if a customer is experiencing an outage, they can call BMUs 24/7 outage response number at 605-697-8418.
Contact Mondell Keck at [email protected].
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