A few passing clouds. Low 46F. Winds light and variable..

A few passing clouds. Low 46F. Winds light and variable.

A few passing clouds. Low 46F. Winds light and variable..

A few passing clouds. Low 46F. Winds light and variable.

(Clarinda) -- Clarinda residents were among those who lost power last night due to what MidAmerican Energy officials say was a case of vandalism at one of its substations.

That's according to MidAmerican Spokesman Geoff Greenwood, who tells KMA News nearly 1,100 residents were without power Monday night from 11 p.m. until around 2 a.m. Greenwood says MidAmerican's system control center detected an issue Monday evening, prompting the company to send a substation crew to assess the problem. While the control center wasn't sure what caused the issue, Greenwood says when crews arrived, they quickly identified the cause of the alert.

"When they arrived at the substation, they saw that someone had cut a hole in the fence and as they got inside the substation, they saw a pile of copper wire that had been cut," Greenwood explained. "That was on the ground and it appears that someone had cut wire and made a pretty quick exit out of the substation."

However, Greenwood says crews had to shut down the power from the station to several customers for safety reasons while conducting repairs.

He adds the repairs did take a few hours to complete.

"Our crews got the replacement materials or wires and materials they needed to make those repairs, but first they had to turn off that substation to make sure they could do their jobs safely," said Greenwood. "Once they were able to replace those materials, they energized that circuit and restored those customers."

He adds that this isn't the first time they've recently seen copper wire cut or taken from one of its stations. But Greenwood says entering a live substation unsupervised or without permission can present a severe safety risk.

"I can't emphasize enough how much risk you are putting yourself into when you are messing around with 69,000 volts of electricity," Greenwood emphasized. "It's just a dangerous, dangerous idea to break into an active substation that is energized. It's just a tremendous risk to anyone who does that."

Greenwood says they've seen similar acts at substations in Hastings, Glenwood, and twice in Emerson. According to the Page County Sheriff's Office, a suspect was arrested in connection to the incident Tuesday morning. You can keep up to date with any possible outages on MidAmerican's website.

At KMA, we attempt to be accurate in our reporting. If you see a typo or mistake in a story, please contact us by emailing kmaradio@kmaland.com.

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