COVINGTON, Ky. — The return to work and school got off to a confusing start in Covington and Newport this morning thanks to a rush hour power failure caused by a train which accidentally knocked down three utility poles in Newport, the Kentucky Post reported.
Cinergy officials said about 24,000 residents in Northern Kentucky and west Cincinnati lost power just before 8 a.m. The timing was just right to knock out traffic lights as commuters rolled into work, causing confusion but no major problems, according to emergency dispatchers.
Cinergy said most customers had power restored in about 15 minutes.
Schools in both Covington and Newport were among the 2,000 locations affected.
Holmes High School in Covington was without electricity for approximately an hour at the start of the school day. School officials were considering sending students home for the day when power was restored just before 9 a.m.
Newport Middle School and two elementaries — A.D. Owens and Mildred Dean — were also affected, a school official said. The middle school had a backup generator.
The outage caused other inconveniences as well. Newport firefighters had to answer an alarm drop at The Syndicate restaurant and nightclub, which is typical when the power fails, said Newport Fire Chief Larry Atwell. And the power blipped off at city hall before backup generators kicked in, he said.
Atwell said there were no other problems reported to emergency dispatchers.
Cinergy officials said the outage occurred when a train, passing through the Newport Steel property, knocked down three utility poles carrying transmission lines, Cinergy spokeswoman Kathy Meinke said.
Officials were trying to determine how the accident occurred this morning.