CLEVELAND, Texas – Power crews worked to turn an incident described as "very critical" back to normal after nearly 13,000 customers in the Greater Cleveland area lost service Monday afternoon. The danger was immediate -- noticed by the Precinct 6 constable -- when he witnessed a power pole crashing to the ground.
"It snapped, bounced on the ground, and shot sparks up," says Constable John Joslin. "It caught the grass on fire and there was some people out there had to evacuate the area to keep it off of them."
The cause of the problem: Cleveland ISD says this FedEx truck smashed into a power pole next to the district bus barn behind the high school. More than a dozen bus drivers had to take shelter inside the transportation building.
"We did have to wait for fire department and Entergy to arrive to actually get the bus drivers out of the transportation facility," said Cleveland ISD Police Chief Rex Evans. "They were inside while that line was still charged."
Power was out for many for nearly 4 1/2 hours from Cleveland, to Shepherd, to Splendora.
But for the crew at the Dairy Queen on Washington Avenue -- they had to pull the plug for the night.
"Once our power goes off we don't have backup generators and stuff to kick on so all of our system shuts down and there ain't nothing we can do," says shift manager Lisa Peden. "Our regular customers come in and we can't wait on them. It's kind of sad."
The FedEx driver was issued a citation. No injuries were reported but about 48 bus routes were seriously impacted because more than a dozen buses were trapped for a time by the fallen power lines.