April 30, 2004 – Many parts of St. John were without power for more than three hours on Friday afternoon after a bulldozer struck a utility pole guy wire near Gallows Point Resort.
"The pole snapped in half," Len Otley, Gallows Point general manager, said, and the sparking electrical wires fell into the intersection just past Gallows Point.
"It was a pretty scary situation," Otley said.
The bulldozer operator was working on Gallows Point's new parking lot, located uphill from the resort.
Otley said no one was hurt in the accident, which happened around 3:30 p.m. The Water and Power Authority restored power shortly before 7 p.m. However, he said, cable television and telephones were still out in areas near the downed wires.
"WAPA was amazing," he said, adding that police officers and St. John Rescue personnel were on the scene within minutes to direct traffic through adjacent streets.
Gallows Point's generator came on automatically when the power went out, Otley said, but it powers only a few lights in each of the rooms, and some guests complained.
WAPA's executive director, Alberto Bruno-Vega, reached during the outage, said that WAPA crews were working on the problem.
Later Friday night, Bruno-Vega said that only one of the island's distribution lines was affected.
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