Power Outage Caused By Balloon

Saturday’s power outage in Hood River was caused by a metallic-skinned helium balloon that got away.  Pacific Power vice president for operations Curt Mansfield says they found Mylar shreds during repairs.  The balloon from a nearby celebration apparently blew into a substation and made contact with electrical equipment and caused a short.  Power was restored within 75 minutes.  Pacific Power reported about 30 balloon-related outages in 2015, ranging in duration from a few minutes to several hours.  In 2014, a balloon caused a six-hour outage in Seaside in the middle of July 4 weekend.

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