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PrintCOLUMBIA — Between 300 and 500 Columbia residents on Old 63 and Paris Road lost power Thursday afternoon when a tree limb fell on a power line at the Columbia Country Club.
The power outage lasted about 20 minutes, said Columbia Water and Light Department spokeswoman Connie Kacprowicz, but some residents went without electricity for nearly two hours.
Kacprowicz said the fallen limbs were damaged several weeks ago during thunderstorms.
“A lot of these types of accidents are caused from storms ... with the limbs being broken and stuck in the trees,” Kacprowicz said.
Parts of Stephens College and Boone Hospital Center were affected by the outage. Kacprowicz said Boone Hospital Center uses an additional power line and back-up generators for the hospital’s critical patients.
“As far as I know, the hospital was not affected,” she said Thursday evening.
Hospital officials could not be reached for comment.
Some residents who live on Paris Road said they came home from work Thursday to find their power out.
Charles Odell, a 55-year-old Columbia resident who lives on the 1600 block of Paris, said he was unable to tell how long his power had been out but was concerned that meat in his freezer may have become spoiled and that an oxygen pump feeding into his fish tank may have been disengaged.
“If it was out longer than three hours, then I’ll be concerned,” Odell said.
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