That’s Some Powerful Balloon!

Who'd a thunk it?  A shiny,   silver  mylar balloon is the culprit in putting more than 17,000 people in Caddo Parish in the dark.

According to SWEPCO officials,  a balloon blew into power lines and caused the outage of power at a substation on Williamson Way yesterday afternoon,  knocking out electricity to some 8,900 people.  Traffic signals were out at major intersections throughout southwest  Shreveport.

The strain from fixing that outage,  caused such a load on the system that another substation went out sending another 3,000 homes into the dark.

Late last night, there were still thousands powerless, according to SWEPCO's website.

Apparently, that shiny, polyester material on party balloons is dangerous when it touches power lines.

How did people handle the heat, since the outages began in the heat of the afternoon, which felt like 109 degrees?

Many jumped in their cars and trucks for the air conditioning or went to restaurants to cool off.