More answers have come to light regarding the lack of light and power Jacksonville suffered from late Monday night.
Preliminary reports from WLDS/WEAI indicated that, through various social media sites, it became apparent that most areas of the city suffered some sort of power outage Monday night starting shortly after 9:30. While some residents lost power for just a few minutes, the majority were without power for close to three hours.
As for the affected areas, unofficially, WLDS/WEAI News received reports Monday night of residents from the Jacksonville Airport, to the downtown area, Westgate and even as far east as Old State Road.
Speculation as to what caused the extended power outage varied throughout most of yesterday morning. However, Ameren Illinois Spokeswoman Marcelyn Love explains what her company found in their investigation of the incident.
“We first received reports of an outage at around 9:45. After further investigation, we learned that a support brace failed on part of one of our large 69KZ sub-transmission lines, affecting approximately seven thousand customers in the Jacksonville area. We were able to switch the power source for most customers, and power was restored by 12:30 a.m.,” says Love.
While most sections of the city suffered what people on social media were referring to as #JacksonvilleBlackOut2017, Love says she didn’t have the specific parts of town that were or were not affected. Some areas such as parts of South Jacksonville and several blocks west of the intersection at Mound and Westgate suffered either very brief outages or none at all.