Weekend crash takes out power in Wellman

WELLMAN — Around 850 buildings in Wellman went dark Saturday night after a car ran into a transmission pole south of town and knocked out the city’s electricity, according to residents and an Alliant Energy spokesperson.

Alliant Communications Specialist Tony Palese said the outage began at 9:15 p.m. Jan. 27, and took all night to fix.

“We were able to backfeed service and restore power for approximately one third of those affected,” Palese said in an email. “Crews working overnight to repair the pole and line were able to restore service to the remaining customers by 6 a.m. Sunday.”

An item in the Washington County’s call for service log Saturday night said the accident was a single-vehicle crash, which injured two occupants of the car. Both were sent to the University of Iowa Hospital. The county document said a state accident report would be filed, but no such report was available as of Tuesday night.

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com