Power restored in Springfield

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) - The power went out Friday night for hundreds of Western Massachusetts Electric Company customers in Springfield, but has been restored as of Saturday morning.

The power went out from Central Street to the Riverfront and the Basketball Hall of Fame a little after 8:00 pm Friday.

The WMECO Power Restoration page showed 441 customers without power as of 11:45 Friday night.  WMECO spokeswoman Katie Blint told 22News reoair crews had traced the problem to an underground cable.  She said they were working on it, and they hoped to have power restored to most customers soon.  441 customers represents less than 1% of WMECO's total customer base in Springfield.

Monarch Place lost power in downtown Springfield at about 8:00 pm as well.

Samuel's Sports bar went dark, at the basketball Hall of Fame, but owner Eddie Grimaldi told 22News that his staff were still serving customers by candle light.  He said they "broke out the crash kits."  Crash kits are manual order pads, flashlights and credit card swiping devices that don't require wall power.

"Pizzeria Uno's still has power just across the parking lot," said Grimaldi.  "Frustrating."

Power came back on at Sam's just after 9:00 pm, and customers cheered.  Despite the lights coming on at the Hall of fame building, there were still hundreds without power in Springfield by midnight.

Springfield Police Lt. John Bobianski told 22News the police department received reports of outages in the Six Corners section of the city.

West Springfield had 45 customers without power according to the WMECO Restoration website, but that number was knocked down to zero by 11:00 pm.