Power restored after morning outage

MARQUETTE — In addition to being a foggy morning, Tuesday morning was a dark one for some Marquette residents.

Officials from the Marquette Board of Light and Power say one phase of an overhead cable near the Lower Harbor apparently became damaged and broke around 5:30 a.m. Circuit protection kicked in, cutting power off to over 200 customers around the harbor and in parts of downtown Marquette.

Within 45 minutes, crews were able to open a circuit and restore power to 90 percent of those affected. Crews patched the broken line and inspected equipment, and power was restored to the remaining 24 customers around Lakeshore Boulevard by 9:00 a.m.

It’s unknown what initially damaged to the line. Officials say lightning can cause such damage, and despite having animal guards on equipment, adventurous squirrels are often the culprit, especially this time of year.