A MidAmerican Energy official stands next to Le Mars Fire Chief Dave Schipper as they deal with a downed power line that affected the northeast portion of Le Mars, Floyd Valley Healthcare, and the town of Oyens.
(Le Mars) — Shortly before 10:00 a.m. this morning, power was knocked out for the northeast portion of Le Mars. A power line had snapped and dropped across Highway 3 near 6th Avenue N.E., causing traffic to be detoured until such time, MidAmerican officials were able to repair the line. The outage affected Floyd Valley Healthcare as the local hospital had to resort to auxiliary power from a stand-by generator. Power was also interrupted for the small town of Oyens. According to the MidAmerica website, more than 473 residences and businesses were without power. Power was off in the affected region for nearly an hour. MidAmerican spokesperson Geoff Greenwood explains.
MidAmerican officials did not explain what caused the power line to fall.
Due to the power outage, Floyd Valley Healthcare Urgent Care is closed on Saturday.
