Balloons cause “boom,” minor power outage

A pair of wayward Mylar balloons tripped two power circuits Thursday night, causing a minor outage that lasted about two hours, according to a Clark Public Utilities spokeswoman.

Only about 50 houses located in and around the 3500 block of East Evergreen Boulevard were affected by the disturbance, said Heather Allmain.

She said the balloons got caught in the power lines that hang above Evergreen Boulevard, near Harney Elementary School.

Clark Public Utilities dispatched a crew to repair two 80-amp circuits at about midnight, Allmain said.

She said they restored power to the area in about 90 minutes.

The blown amps let out a “boom,” a resident in the neighborhood wrote in an e-mail to The Columbian.

“It can happen,” Allmain said. “It was pretty minor in comparison to some of the other outages that we have.”