LAFAYETTE PARISH — LUS crews have been working since Tuesday night to repair a utility pole that snapped in half along Johnston Street—cutting power to homes and businesses in the area and damaging a passing car.
It all happened just after 5 p.m. Tuesday outside TOPS, an acceleration business located along the busy stretch of road.
“It was a moment no one saw coming,” said Matt Fanguy, a witness who was sitting in his car nearby when the pole came crashing down.
“As I was looking toward my left on Johnston Street, I saw the top half of our power line start tipping… until it completely fell,” Fanguy said.
The top half of the pole dangled just feet above the ground, and one of the power lines landed directly on a moving car, cracking the windshield. The driver quickly pulled into the nearby parking lot, Fanguy recalled.
“She was completely in shock,” Sherry Latour said. “One of our employees came out to help her right away.”
But the damage didn’t stop there.
The snapped pole also caused a major disruption to local businesses, including those inside the building owned by Latour.
“We lost power, we lost Internet, we lost phone service. I run about 10 businesses in this building… everything stopped,” Latour told KATC.
Latour says this incident was years in the making.
“I’ve reported this rotten pole many times over the years,” she said.
“Cox, AT&T, and LUS Fiber all told us it was rotting, but no one ever came to fix it.”
LUS has since confirmed the pole belongs to them and spent Wednesday replacing it and reconnecting services. However, a spokesperson told KATC they could not confirm whether the company received any prior complaints about the pole’s condition.
Initial reports from Lafayette police and LUS suggested that a car crash may have caused the pole to break—but witnesses say otherwise.
“I didn’t see a car hit the pole at all,” said Fanguy.
“It’s just frustrating that it had to break like this for them to finally replace it,” Latour said.
A spokesperson for LUS says the pole has been replaced and power has been restored to surrounding homes and businesses. The cause of the incident is still under investigation.
