Mar. 31—Wind gusts are leading to downed power lines, causing outages for customers across the region.
Liberty Utilities reports as of 6 p.m. Friday about 5,400 customers across its entire service area, which includes areas in Neosho, Newton and McDonald counties, Northwest Arkansas and other areas across the Ozarks.
The outages are not concentrated in certain areas, said Kelli Price, senior manager of communications and marketing for the company.
"At the moment these are scattered outages, due to high winds," Price said. "We are seeing them across our entire service region. We have crews working to restore power as safely as possible."
A power outage affected traffic at 20th and Connecticut, where traffic lights were not operational for a period of time. The Joplin Public Library experienced several power outages during the afternoon until it was shut down completely, leading to the library closing early for the day.
Employees and patrons reported hearing loud booming sounds, coming from when the wind would cause two lines to hit each other.
"It was like a booming sound similar to when a transformer blows out," said Lisa Brown, assistant director of the library. "We heard it every time before the power would cut out, but it sounded like it came from different directions each time."
Price said if people encounter downed power lines, they should avoid them and report them as soon as possible.
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