A power outage hit 16,000 Clark Public Utilities customers Monday afternoon in Vancouver’s Cascade Park area.
A cracked insulator on a transmission pole affected three substations in the Ellsworth Springs neighborhood, according to Erica Erland, spokeswoman for the utilities company. Originally, it was thought that a car hit the pole, which would have caused a similar outage.
The outage was reported just after 3 p.m. near the intersection of Northeast 122nd Avenue and Northeast Ninth Street. Within the hour, almost all customers’ power was restored, Erland said.
Traffic signals along Southeast Mill Plain Boulevard and south to Southeast McGillivray Boulevard were temporarily affected.
Reports came into 911 dispatch around 3:10 p.m. that some signals were flashing red and others were out, said Kim Kapp, spokeswoman for the Vancouver Police Department.
Traffic crawled along the busy Mill Plain corridor during the outage. Employees at McGrath’s Fish House, 12501 S.E. Second Circle, could see the backup from the restaurant.
Customers had to be turned away for about 30 minutes during the midafternoon outage.
“Thankfully, it is a slow time,” said manager David Goldman.
In the meantime, employees turned off the gas and transferred food to the freezer.
Larger business buildings in east Vancouver, including all six Park Plaza towers, were temporarily out of power. The complex host about 80 tenants.
