Community Corner

Thousands Lose Electricity Thursday Afternoon

A bird of prey responsible for massive power outage in Cumming.

Just before 5 p.m. Thursday thousands of residences and businesses were in the dark due to a massive power outage affecting Cumming and some areas in Norcross.

The culprit was a large bird of prey, a raptor, which came in contact with a breaker at the Cumming substation, instantly killing the bird, and knocking power out.

“The substation breaker, which is a protective device, actually operated and knocked the power out,” said Blake House, spokesperson for Sawnee EMC. “It took the station down which is exactly what it is suppose to do so that it won’t burn up or damage any of the equipment.”

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The majority of Cumming and the city of Norcross, which serves the Walmart on Marketplace Blvd., were without power for a short time, according to House.

Sawnee EMC Crews responded quickly and were able to get the breakers back on and bring the circuits back up, one at a time, and restore power in 48 minutes.

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

At the height of the outage about 5,000 Sawnee EMC customers were without power.

There were about 2700 customers of Georgia Power that were impacted initially, but power was restored to its customers within 30 minutes of the outage, said Lynn Wallace, spokesperson for Georgia Power.


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