Outage leaves thousands without power late Tuesday

A power outage Tuesday left thousands of customers without electricity for part of the afternoon, according to Arizona Public Service Co.

At 4:08 p.m., the utility lost a 69-kilovolt distribution line that feeds the San Luis substation and the substation for Somerton, reported Andrea Bereznak, Yuma spokeswoman for APS.

The outage initially affected an estimated 16,000 customers in San Luis, Ariz., Somerton and the surrounding valley, including the state prison complex and the private federal detention center.

By 4:38 p.m., power had been restored to about half the customers. And as of 6:04  p.m., all customers again had electricity, Bereznak reported.

The cause of the outage was still under investigation, she said late Tuesday.

Arizona Western College cancelled classes at the San Luis campus because of the power outage and closed the campus to all students, staff and faculty until this morning.

According to a release from AWC spokeswoman Lori Stofft, strong winds knocked down power lines and APS was onsite late Tuesday repairing them.