Power restored to downtown Cedar Rapids after being cut for safety reasons

UPDATE: Power was restored to most areas of downtown Cedar Rapids around 9:30 p.m. Monday, after crews cut power Monday afternoon for safety reasons.

The outage started around 4:30 p.m., and it became a confusing, even chaotic, time as people were trying to get home.

It started with Alliant Energy having to cut electricity to the downtown area to investigate a power loss. The company says this affected at least 2,020 customers.

The outage was deliberate, in an effort to pinpoint a possible power surge and safety concern.

Alliant still doesn't know what started that original problem, but there was a surge of electricity in number of downtown buildings that brought nearly all the city fire crews to the heart of downtown.

“At one point, we had almost every fire company in town in downtown Cedar Rapids responding,” said Greg Buelow with the Cedar Rapids Fire Department.  “We know in at least three buildings there is some damage.”

The Physicians Clinic of Iowa building, Mercy Medical Center and the third floor of the Towne Center all had smoke or equipment damage.

Alliant says while it doesn't have an exact cause behind the power surge, the company suspects it started at a substation affected by the 2008 flood.

“It is amazing that three years later, we're still feeling the effects from the flood, but that's the reality,” said Justin Foss with Alliant Energy.

When the energy company noticed a problem, it turned off the downtown power grid.

This darkened traffic lights and added to the confusion during rush hour.

“We understand that caused traffic lights to go out,” said Foss.  “We felt there was an overriding safety concern that took top priority.”

Alliant says the cause of the surge is under investigation.  Mercy Medical Center had to go on generator power, but the situation didn't affect patient care, hospital officials said.