Morning power outage presents challenges for Maricopans

It wasn’t exactly the night the lights went out in Georgia, but Maricopa residents and businesses felt the power outage that hit the area Tuesday morning. Power went out to the city around 9:40 a.m.

A spokeswoman with Electrical District No. 3 said crews were still out in the field as of 10:45 a.m. She said she didn’t know what caused the outage, and it would be several hours before electric officials could come together and, through comparing information, determine the exact cause. Power was still coming back on to different parts of the city at 11 a.m.

With power out, Maricopa’s Police Department and the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office were manning some intersections directing traffic. No accidents were reported as of 11:30 a.m.

“Two of my officers were on the scene, along with a few Maricopa police officers,” Pinal County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Jason Agresta said. “Our job is to conduct manual traffic control and make sure that traffic is flowing smoothly.” Agresta said officers were at the intersection of Cobblestone and Rancho El Dorado Parkway, where one set of lights was out.

Businesses were impacted by the outage but were still attempting to conduct daily operations as usual.

Aaron Willis, an assistant manager with Bashas’, said shortly after 10 a.m. that the store was being shut down until the power came back on. An employee at the door was informing customers the store was temporarily closed.

“We have to shut down the store because the registers only have so much backup,” Willis said. “We can still check out customers,” Willis added. Around 10 a.m. a handful of customers was still in the store at the registers.

Across the street at Fry’s, an assistant manager declined to be interviewed.