The Potomac Highlands Dispatch - the online newspaper

Power outage in Mount Savage
Second service disruption in area within 31 hours

By The Potomac Highlands Dispatch
MOUNT SAVAGE, Jan. 23 -- Watching the AFC Championship game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and New York Jets - among other things - was made a little more difficult Sunday evening as approximately 1,000 utility customers in the Mount Savage area lost power at about 8 p.m.

It was the second service disruption in the same area within 31 hours. Early Saturday afternoon, an 84-minute outage affected approximately 1,100 customers.

Allen Staggers said a preliminary inspection by a work crew at the substation south of Frostburg, which serves the affect area, seemed to indicate the same problem as on Saturday.

Staggers said Sunday night the problem seemed to be caused by a higher-than-usual demand, in part, probably, because of the cold weather. The forecast Sunday night into Monday called for an overnight low of 4 degrees.

Initially, Staggers said workers could redistribute how power was coming into a feeder line into the area. That way, all the power to the area would not be coming from the same line. Shortly before 9:30 p.m., however, Staggers said that attempt would be made no earlier than Monday.

"They went ahead and put the circuit back in rather than take a chance on trying to do anything tonight," Staggers said. "With the temperatures being so cold ... They'll take a look at that situation again tomorrow."

When power was restored at about 8:50 p.m., the Steelers were leading the Jets, 24-10, in the third quarter.