Thousands lose power during Friday morning rush, OUC says

The power was out for thousands of customers across Orlando, said the Orlando Utility Commission.

The outage started just before 8 a.m. Friday, leaving busy intersections without working traffic lights and many people without lights or air conditioning.

An OUC spokesperson told Channel 9 there was “some type of incident” at a substation in downtown Orlando around 7:45 a.m., sparking about 4,000 outages.

As of 8:45 a.m., OUC's outage map indicated about 2,700 customers without power. By 11 a.m., the map showed less than 100 outages.

Get the power of Eyewitness News even when your power is out: Download the free WFTV news & weather apps

The main outage area impacted isolated parts of downtown, stretching as far north as the Colonial Drive corridor and as far south as the Parramore neighborhood.

Lake Eola and many of the surrounding downtown businesses were also affected.

OUC did not say what is causing the outages.

If you encounter a traffic signal with no power, always treat it the same way you would treat a four-way stop sign.

WFTV’s downtown studios were also affected. Lights were out throughout much of the building, while essential operations such as the main news set and newsroom were operating on a backup generator. Full power was restored just before 9 a.m.

Cox Media Group