Pierre has 3 power outages in a week
PIERRE, SOUTH DAKOTA - Pierre's utilities director says he's confident there will no more power outages in the city in the near future, after three happened in one week.
Brad Palmer says three outages in a week is rare. He says the power system is stable.
The latest outage happened when an electrical line shorted out and caused a blackout for a significant portion of southern and western Pierre. Three traffic lights went out but police say there were no accidents.
The week previous, there were outages in the city caused by a short in an aging underground cable and by a 3-foot-long bull snake that crawled into an electrical substation and triggered an automatic shutdown of equipment.
The July 15 outage might be connected to the previous weekÂ’s blackouts. Palmer says that to restore power, city crews routed extra electricity through other power lines, exposing weaknesses in the system.
Related News

Kyiv warns of 'difficult' winter after deadly strikes
KYIV - Ukraine has warned that difficult winter months lay ahead after a massive Russian missile barrage targeted civilian infrastructure, killing three in the south and wounding many across the country.
Russia launched the strikes as Ukraine prepares for a third winter during Moscow's 19-month long invasion and as President Volodymyr Zelensky made his second wartime trip to Washington.
"Most of the missiles were shot down. But only the majority. Not all," Zelensky said, calling for the West to provide Kyiv with more anti-missile systems.
The fresh attack came as Poland said it would honour pre-existing commitments of weapons supplies to Kyiv, a…