Via Cape Cod Incidents/CWN
HYANNIS – A large power outage is being reported in the Mid-Cape area as of about 6 PM Wednesday. At the same time, reports were coming in of a power substation on fire on Mary Dunn Road in the rear of the Cape Cod Gateway Airport. As many as 23,000 Eversource customers lost power mostly in Barnstable and Yarmouth. Line crews are responding to assess the situation.
Yarmouth Police report that due to the power outage, the Yarmouth Police Department is experiencing comm failure with their business and 911 phone lines. All 911 calls are currently being directed to Dennis PD.
The radio system is still operational and they are still be responding to calls for service.
YPD will provide updates as we get them.
Fire departments are very busy responding to calls including people stuck in elevators and numerous fire alarms triggered by the power outage.
Numerous intersection have non working traffic lights. Please remember to treat these intersections as a four-way stop.
By 8 PM, The Eversource Outage Map indicated the outage had been reduced to about 3,000 customers.
Update from Eversource spokesperson Farrah Garibaldi: “Shortly after 6 PM, we responded to a fire at our Hyannis substation caused by equipment failure, which caused approximately 13,000 customers to initially lose power. We immediately worked with the fire department and other public safety officials to make the area safe, extinguish the fire, and assess the damage to our equipment. In order to safely conduct that work, we had to cut power for an additional approximately 9,000 customers. Of the approximately 22,000 customers in total who were without power, the vast majority have been restored as of 8 PM. Our crews are working as quickly as safely possible to restore power to the approximately 1300 remaining customers currently without power, and we will continue to further assess the damage and evaluate the exact cause of the equipment failure.”
