Community Corner

Power Knocked Out to 2,115 Iowa City Customers Wednesday Afternoon by Fallen Tree

A map of the affected area is also in the article.

More than 2,000 customers were left without power Wednesday afternoon after a tree collided with a power line.

Here is a photo of the fallen tree.

Power was lost at 3:30 p.m. After about an hour and a half, the number of customers without power was reduced to a little over 1,100 according to this Tina Potthoff, a spokesperson with MidAmerican Energy.

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She said that the power was knocked out by an unlikely culprit on a low wind day:

"We had a large tree that impacted the line," Potthoff said.

Find out what's happening in Iowa Citywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Potthoff said she did not know what caused the tree to fall.

"That I do not know, I just know that the tree falling was the cause."

The area of the black out was roughly North Summit Street to Dearborn Street to Heather Court to East Bloomington Street (see attached map for a rough idea of the affected area.)

Potthoff said that MidAmerican energy directed a tree removal crew to the scene. She said crews worked on slowly switching the households over to another line so the damaged line could be safely repaired.

Power was restored to most households in the affected area by the middle of the evening.


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