Ken WebbCLEVELAND, Tenn. - An hour long power outage left traffic snarled and thousands without power across Cleveland on Wednesday afternoon.
"We had a line fall out [at] our East Cleveland substation around 12:30 p.m. that caused eight other substations to go offline," said Ken Webb, president and CEO of Cleveland Utilities. "This outage affected all the city's major traffic corridors."
The East Cleveland substation is one of two in which the electric division receives power from the Tennessee Valley Authority, according to the Cleveland Utilities' website.
About 17,000 customers were without power during the height of the event, but most had their service restored quickly, Webb said. Within 58 minutes, electric service was restored to all customers.
Cleveland Utilities serves an estimated 39,754 electric customers, according to its website.
No Cleveland Utilities workers were injured in the event, which has been attributed to a mechanical failure, Webb said.
"The traffic was horrendous," said Troy Spence, director of Bradley County Emergency Management Agency. "Plants letting out around this time added to the issue."
Traffic signals were out in the heart of the city and in areas of the county just outside Cleveland, he said.
Bradley County EMA issued an advisory by text, email and social media for drivers to treat intersections with failed traffic signals as four-way stops.
Cleveland police officers were "all over the city" directing traffic in an effort to alleviate the situation, said Evie West, public information officer for the Cleveland Police Department.
The intersection of Paul Huff Parkway and Keith Street was particularly bad, she said.
No specific data was available yet, but West said traffic accidents were "happening left and right."
Bradley County deputies directed traffic near U.S. Highway 64, Sheriff Eric Watson said.
Before learning the cause for the outage, deputies had been dispatched to electric substations to respond to any possible accidents, Watson said.
Paul Leach is based in Cleveland. Email him at paul.leach.press@gmail.com.