(La Porte County, IN) - A fallen power line was the cause of a large NIPSCO service outage in the La Porte area yesterday afternoon.

 

According to NIPSCO, the wind caused a power line to fall on other lines in the area of U.S. 35 and 400 South, which in turn caused electrical breakers to trip at a downtown La Porte substation near the courthouse and create two loud booms.

 

NIPSCO spokesperson Tara McElmurry said the loud sounds were not an explosion, but a loud noise created when the breakers tripped to shut off the electricity for safety purposes.  

 

“That was just our system working as it should. There was never any danger to the public,” she said.

 

McElmurry said about 5,200 customers were without power and a vast majority of them had service restored in about two hours. Power was cut off to a number of traffic lights in downtown La Porte, which resulted in a traffic backup on the U.S. 35 overpass.