www.wowt.com wrote:Hundreds of customers, most of them businesses in the old market, were still without power Tuesday at midday. It's all due to an early morning fire that damaged OPPD's underground cable vaults.
OPPD says its repair crews have to let the vaults cool down where the fire happened. This will prevent full restoration of power until Tuesday afternoon or possibly even Tuesday evening.
The timing couldn't be worse. We are in for one of the hottest and most uncomfortable days of the summer. Meteorologists in the Channel 6 Weather Authority forecast center say the metro is under a heat advisory because of combined high temperatures and high humidity.
At Midday there still is no service from 14th street down to the river and from Dodge to Jones street.
The impacted area includes hotels and dozens of restaurants.
There will be a lot of lost business today.
The fire started shooting out of an underground electrical vault near 10th and Howard. Witnesses reported some small explosions.
OPPD had to shut off power to an entire sub-station. That helped bring the fire under control but it also knocked out power to the area outlined above.
Juan Perez Jr.
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER wrote:Omaha Police scoured the area near 7th and Marcy Streets at approximately 1:30 Tuesday morning when the utility contacted police to report suspicions that someone was cutting subterranean cables in the area. The department's helicopter, several cruisers and a K-9 unit checked the area, but found nothing.
The incidents, and whether they were connected, are still being investigated.
:lafcry: :lafcry: 
