YONGSAN GARRISON, South Korea — Heavy rains and an overgrown tree caused a Thursday power outage that left both sides of Yongsan Garrison without power for almost five hours, officials said Friday.
The outage occurred at around 1:30 p.m., when the water-logged branches of a tree caused a short in one of five power circuits that ring Yongsan Garrison. Circuit four, where the outage began, is near the construction site for a new housing project on Rose Street, Area II spokesman John Nowell said.
The outage in the circuit put a heavy strain on the rest of the power system, causing a domino effect that knocked out power to circuits two and three, next to the hospital parking lot.
Those three circuits provide the power for all of South Post, Nowell said. By 1:45 p.m., all three had been knocked off-line.
Public works officials determined that, in order to safely restore power to South Post, the circuits that power the Main Post had to be shut off as well. After notifying most commands, workers cut off power to both sides of the base.
By 6 p.m. Thursday, all power had been restored, Nowell said.
In the end, the outage meant an early end to the work and school day for Yongsan workers. With power restored by early evening, most were unaffected, except for minor inconveniences. Emergency power generators at all critical facilities worked properly, officials said Friday.
“I didn’t mind so much,” said Stacey Prosper, an Army spouse. “My husband came home from work early and by the time we wanted to make something to eat, everything was back to normal.”
