Residents in the area of Evans and Maple streets in Batavia experienced a brief power outage after a big rig struck a utility pole. The pole was shapped in half and is hanging partially over the roadway.
Power was automatically rerouted. There are no wires down.
"Definitely needs the power company," said a responder. City fire and police are on scene.
UPDATE 4 p.m. (By Howard): Power went out in the neighborhood again at about 3:45 p.m. At the same time, The Batavian's office downtown lost its Internet connection (it was interrupted during the first power outage as well). The semi driver reportedly was trying to get around another car on Evans when he hit the pole. There is no damage to the truck. No injuries reported. City fire is going back in service. National Grid is on scene and a worker told city fire that it will take two hours to restore power.
UPDATE 4:12 p.m.: National Grid is going to try to reroute some power so that the north side of the accident scene gets power back within 45 minutes. This will restore power to the intersection of Main and Ellicott streets.
UPDATE 4:20 p.m.: A teller alarm went off at a downtown bank and a Batavia PD officer reported, "the power just came back on, so it could be related." The Batavian's phone service and Internet connection came back on at the same time. National Grid is reporting power is restored. It's unknown if this is a temporary or permanent fix. About 1,300 customers were affected by the outage.
UPDATE 4:45 p.m.: National Grid reports about 30 customers without power in the city with an estimated time for restoration of 5:15 p.m.
