GUEYDAN, La. — The Gueydan Police Department says that power has now been restored to the town.
Police say that as of 8:40 a.m. power was back on to residents after crews worked overnight to fix the problem.
On Thursday, Officials with the Town of Gueydan say they lost power after a malfunction caused the town's power grid to malfunction.
According to Mayor Jude Reese, the issue with the power grid is the result of a lightening strike on the town's substation during last week's severe weather.
Reese says that the town is divided into six grids that are controlled by six main switches. Switch 1 was completely destroyed by the lightening strike and Switches 2 and 3 took significant damage that left them inoperable.
The mayor says that left the town's six grids operating on only three switches.
The town's power had been out since about 5 p.m. Thursday when power usage was at its highest.
"I had power cut to the water and sewer plant (they are on generator power) and to the schools to try and reduce the load, unfortunately it was not enough," states Reese in a social media post. "Basically what is happening is the 6 grids working on 3 switches are overloading the switches and they are shutting down."
Reese says that Grid 2 is expected to be back online at 9 p.m. Thursday night after the sun goes down and the temperature drops.
However, Reese tells KATC that there is the possibility that Grid 2 may need to stay off for the night.
He said that he is expecting a Lafayette Utilities System crew to work on the grid Friday morning at 8 a.m. in order to resolve the issue permanently.
"I would ask every one to please be patient and please do what you can to help reduce the load on our power grid," states Reese. "We will get through this folks it takes time though."
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