17,000 customers in Milwaukee County experience power outage
Associated Press
MILWAUKEE - About 17,000 We Energies customers, including the Mitchell International Airport, were affected by a power outage Saturday night.
The incident was reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said Maripat Blankenheim, spokeswoman for the American Transmission Company.
She said the outage was triggered by a transmission tower's falling on another one, which took out some We Energies distribution lines.
Some bolts were missing at the towers, but the company refused to say if foul play is suspected.
"At this point, it could be as simple as the bolts were loose, it could be something worse," Blankenheim said.
But the FBI was contacted because of the incident was unusual, she said.
"It's a beautiful Saturday afternoon and the towers tipped over. It's not an act of God," she said.
The outage started at 5:40 p.m. and customers in parts of Cudahy, South Milwaukee, Oak Creek and Franklin areas were without power as of 7:30 p.m., said Wendy Parks, We Energies spokeswoman.
We Energies was trying to reroute power for affected customers Saturday night.
http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/politics/9880024.htm If missing bolts are the way to bring down a system, it would be difficult for a terrorist to bring down the US grid.