Several hundred residents of the South University neighborhood, including the Spencer View Family Housing complex, lost power Sunday afternoon after a bus snapped a support cable on a utility pole.
A chartered coach bus ran over a guy-wire tethering a utility pole behind the University ROTC building on Agate Street at approximately 3 p.m., said University Military Science professor Ltc. Bill Fox. The action jerked several power lines loose and blacked-out offices, businesses and one fire station until that evening, when power was restored.
The bus was returning ROTC students from the annual Field Training Exercise at Camp Rilea in Seaside, Ore., Fox said. The department has used the charter bus each spring for seven years.
“It never had an issue until this year,” Fox said. “The bus was trying to turn around in the law school parking lot to get back out when it hit the cable.”
Stress on the one pole traveled down the grid and snapped other wires blocks away. Generators were set up to power traffic signals. The afternoon was sunny and warm, so many residents went outdoors, but businesses and other services faced different problems.
Firefighters at the University Station next door to the ROTC building returned at 4:30 p.m. to find themselves without the electrical power to lift the double-height fire truck garage doors. A broom was eventually used because the small station doesn’t have a generator.
At Saigon Restaurant, located at 1461 E. 19th Ave., customers ate by candlelight or stuck close to the front of the building. Despite the large windows and sunshine, the restaurant was still dark.
Employee Mung Nguyen said the food would still be coming out of the kitchen, even if customers had a hard time seeing it.
“We cook by gas, so we’re pretty O.K.,” she said. “We have candles, but it’s still dark. Hopefully it’s fixed soon.”
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