COLUMBIA — Two power outages in north and central Columbia left people in the dark after a possible lightning strike and a tree that fell on power lines cut the flow of electricity.
The first outage took place at 2:01 p.m. in the Blue Ridge area in the northeast part of Columbia, located near Vandiver Drive, Range Line Street and Paris Road, said Dave Patterson, a balancing authority operator at the Columbia Municipal Power Plant.
“We think that it was caused by a lightning strike, but we’re still not sure,” Patterson said.
He estimated that a few thousand people lost electricity during the half-hour delay.
The second outage took place at 5:11 p.m. on the north side of Business Loop 70 near Garth Avenue and Nebraska Street after a tree fell on transmission lines.
Patterson said power was restored to roughly 380 people at 5:55 p.m. after crews removed a tree limb. He said recent storms are still making their presence known in the form of loosening branches that later fall onto the lines.