Power was restored to several Gainesville residences Tuesday evening, roughly 30 to 40 minutes after a blackout rolled across several city blocks.
The outage on North Avenue near Green Street occurred around 5:40 p.m. when Gainesville Fire Chief Jerome Yarbrough says a tree fell onto a power transformer.
"You know, with all the rain and everything, the ground had saturated, and these trees do fall in that case," he explained. "That's pretty much what it was."
Officials with Georgia Power said shortly after the initial blackout that approximately 80 homes were left without power, although that number was reduced to just 30 homes roughly 20 minutes after the incident.
"It took out a few blocks, all the way from the city center down to the traffic lights along Green Street," Yarbrough added.
Yarbrough said the remaining homes were without power for an additional 20 minutes, but that the extent of the damage was minimal.
"No injuries to anyone, minimal damage to property," he said. "Mainly the power line and transformer."
At last report, power crews remained on scene into the evening hours carrying out repair work on the damaged section of the grid, although officials said customers had full power restored to their homes a few hours earlier.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2017/7/560766/gainesville-power-outages-spurred-by-tree-falling-onto-transformer