Only four Alliant customers remain without power

Alliant Energy is reporting only four customers remain without power at 5 p.m., according to its Web site.

About 5,000 customers lost power mid-day in southeast Cedar Rapids and Marion. Alliant crews cleared a tree branch that fell onto a power line near Menards in Marion, Alliant spokesman Scott Drzycimski said earlier in the day. He was hoping the outage would be repaired by mid-afternoon.

Earlier in the day traffic lights were out along First Avenue East at 29th and 32nd streets in Cedar Rapids and parts of downtown Marion were also without power.

Around 10,000 Alliant customers in Linn County lost power overnight due to high winds that brought down branches. Drzycimski said crews were winding down on repairing that large outage when the mid-day outage occurred.

Power restored to southeast Cedar Rapids, Marion

A new mid-day power outage has about 5,000 customers in southeast Cedar Rapids and Marion in the dark, but shouldn't last much longer.

Alliant Energy crews are working to clear a tree branch that fell onto a power line near Menards in Marion. Alliant spokesman Scott Drzycimski said the outage should be repaired by mid-afternoon.

“It looked like (the tree branch) was left over from this morning's storms and hadn't quite fallen yet,” Drzycimski said.

Traffic lights were out along First Avenue East at 29th and 32nd streets in Cedar Rapids. Parts of downtown Marion were also reportedly without power.

Around 10,000 Alliant customers in Linn County lost power overnight due to high winds that brought down branches. Drzycimski said crews were winding down on repairing that large outage when the new one happened.

About 200 without power after 'heat burst' causes winds to howl

Around 200 customers are now without power in Linn County after an unusual weather phenomena caused temperatures to rise and winds to howl, bringing down trees and power lines.

Winds in excess of 60 mph were reported to the National Weather Service around 5:30 a.m. this morning. Cedar Rapids police received several downed trees and power lines, including a tree that crashed across most of 42nd Street NE near Kennedy High School.

As many as 10,000 customers were without power around 7 a.m., but power has been rerouted for some in the southwest quadrant of Cedar Rapids. Alliant Energy spokesman Ryan Stensland told KCRG-TV9 that crews hoped to have power restored in the next few hours.

Alliant spokesman Scott Drzycimski said about 4,800 customers went dark because of a tree that fell into a power line along Wilson Avenue SW.

Temperatures spiked about 14 degrees in less than an hour in what is referred to as a “heat burst,” according to weather service meteorologist John Haase. Thunderstorms were not present at the time.

Heat bursts usually happen in the plains states during the nighttime hours, but are very rare. They happen as thunderstorms are losing strength, when rain evaporates into a shelf of dry air, Haase said. That causes the air to descend rapidly and wind gusts increase.

“It's so rare,” Haase said. “It's an extreme event.”

Haase said the reports of downed trees and power lines were confined to the Cedar Rapids area.

Showers and thunderstorms are likely in the Cedar Rapids area before 1 p.m. A high of 86 is predicted.

Severe thunderstorms are possible along and south of Interstate 80 this afternoon and evening, according to the weather service.