UPDATED: Xcel Energy Releases Cause of Wed. Night Outage
Event impacted over 4,000 customers.
Update 11:19 a.m. 1/31/12: In an interview with Patch Thursday morning, an Xcel Energy spokesperson said Wednesday night's outage was caused by an underground cable, which failed around 6 p.m.
The spokesperson could not provide the specific technical reason the cable failed, but said that such failures—caused by everything from defects in cables to lightening strikes—do happen from time to time.
The outage ultimately impacted 4,250 Xcel Energy customers in St. Louis Park and Minneapolis. Power was restored to the last customer just after 8 p.m.
Original story: Correction: This story previously listed the incorrect day of the outages.
Wednesday night, more than 4,000 St. Louis Park residents were plunged into darkness.
According to Xcel Energy's power outage map, 4,253 customers were without power in an area centered near Methodist Hospital. An additional 221 customers were without power in an area near Beltline Boulevard.
The former cluster is expected to have its power back around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, while the latter cluster will likely have to wait until early Thursday morning.
Patch will update this story with more information as we receive it, including the causes of these outages.
Mike Hindin
8:57 pm on Wednesday, January 30, 2013
It is Wednesday at 8:50 PM and as of a few moments ago Excell's map shoe only a few scattered clusters or less than 50 outages.
Carol Bungert
9:20 pm on Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Is this a report or a prediction? It's still Wednesday night according to all accounts. Your first line says, "Thursday night..,"
Cindy Engler
9:50 pm on Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Is it true or just another sensationalized headline? And golly, who proof-reads the "breaking news"?
Jimmy Jones
10:03 pm on Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Relax Cindy. Its true. We were at Yum when the power went out.
Carol Bungert
10:20 pm on Wednesday, January 30, 2013
The point is that the story says in its first line that SLP residents were "plunged into darkness on Thursday night." Breaking news just hours ago... And today IS Wednesday. Accuracy is still a critical feature in reporting.
Kevira Voegele
12:00 pm on Thursday, January 31, 2013
Yes, we mistakenly wrote Thursday when it was actually Wednesday night. We corrected the story on Wednesday night. We have since updated the story with more information from Xcel.