A power outage Tuesday night affected hundreds of residents on Unalaska Island. The electric grid shut down just after 5 p.m. and the outage lasted for approximately two and a half hours.
Unalaska Public Utilities Director Dan Winters said the cause was likely sourced from some newly installed equipment at the Alyeska seafood plant.
Winters said a main transmission line went to ground - or shorted out. It took a while to find the problem, Winters said, and public utilities technicians then had to reroute all electrical lines around Alyeska and to a substation near city hall.
As night fell, only the senior center and the clinic had lights, the rest of Unalaska Island was dark.
Ron Ford of the senior center said the facility has emergency lights that kick on when the power goes out. The lights illuminate for three or four hours. Ford said when the power went out last night, center staff went to each of the 15 occupied units to make sure residents were warm enough and had blankets.
Ford also said he called public safety to get an update and was told to call the power plant. He said he called dozens of times but couldn't reach anyone.
Power was restored around 8 p.m. Winters could not provide exact times.
The outage did not affect Amaknak Island.
