Limb on Line Causes Outage

Storms in the area Friday, August 19, are blamed for a power outage on the Island, caused when a tree limb fell across a power line on the West Bluff.

Areas affected by the outage were Harrisonville, Fort Mackinac, East Bluff, and Mission Point, because they are on the same circuit as West Bluff.

The West Bluff, however, was out for a longer period of time, while Edison Sault Electric Company located the problem.

“We don’t want to create more problems than we already have,” said Craig Davidson, St. Ignace division manager for Edison Sault Electric Company, adding that they also took additional time to protect the safety of the public.

According to Mr. Davidson, the power problem on the Island was independent from those in St. Ignace on the same day.

Another power outage occurred Monday, August 22, at approximately 12 p.m., caused by a squirrel getting into Edison Sault Electric Company’s power equipment behind the west end of Mission Point Resort.

Modifications to the reclosure system, according to Mr. Davidson, are expediting restoration of power this fall. Now, all areas on the affected circuit go out, but immediately come back on, except for the area directly affected by the outage.

Areas affected by Monday’s outage were Harrisonville, West Bluff, Fort Mackinac, East Bluff, for a short period of time, and Mission Point for an extended period of time, as that is where the problem was.