Downed tree on transmission line causes power outage for 15K customers, Duke Energy says

Thousands of residents have had electricity restored after a massive power outage on Sunday. 

Duke Energy spokesperson Ryan Mosier told The Sumter Item that about 15,000 customers experienced a power outage on May 31, beginning at 1:30 p.m. 

The cause was a tree that came down, damaging a transmission line, Mosier explained. 

The outage caused many homes and businesses to lose power and many traffic lights to be out of service. 

While working to make repairs, crews were able to reroute power, returning service to about 6,000 of those roughly 15,000 customers. 

The remaining customers had service restored by 3:45 p.m. on Sunday, he said.