Berwick power outages linked to wreck

Several hundred residents in Berwick lost power for a few hours this past weekend.
The first outages occurred Saturday due to a vehicle hitting a utility pole, and then the same customers lost power again Sunday because of a weakened connection believed to be the result of the Saturday wreck.
Cleco Spokeswoman Robbyn Cooper said 722 customers in Berwick lost power at 11:20 a.m. Saturday after a truck hit a utility pole. Workers were able to reroute the flow of power through the system and restored power to all but 10 customers by 12:25 p.m. Saturday, Cooper said. Officials restored power to the remaining 10 customers by 3:20 p.m. Saturday, she said.
Berwick police responded to a report of the single-vehicle crash Saturday morning. The driver of a pickup truck, Randall Buxton, 73, of Berwick, was traveling south on Sixth Street near Pacific Street when he ran off of the road, striking a utility pole, Police Chief James Richard said.
The crash caused damage to the pole and caused power outages in the area, including traffic lights, Richard said. Buxton was cited for careless operation. No one was injured in the crash, Richard said.
On Sunday, the same 722 customers lost power again at 11:55 a.m., and Cleco restored power by about 1:15 p.m. the same day, Cooper said.
Officials are still investigating the possible cause of the Sunday outages, Cooper said. But Cleco officials have preliminarily determined that the truck that hit the pole Saturday weakened an electrical connection, which wasn’t something Cleco technicians could visually detect when they first restored power Saturday, she said.