LIGHTS OUT

American Flag Collision Leaves Thousands Without Power

Businesses and residents in a Connecticut community have since regained power.

An affluent town in southwestern Connecticut with approximately 65,000 residents experienced severe power outages over the weekend after an American flag struck a transmission line. The Saturday night incident in Greenwich, caused by a storm in the area, led to a power outage affecting 5,000 people, with 3,000 having power restored within 20 minutes. Before the flag, which sits atop a WWE building, could be removed on Sunday as planned, the storm caused a second impact, leading to an outage affecting an additional 40,000 people. Many businesses were forced to temporarily close due to the outage. The Greenwich Office of Emergency Management released a statement via Facebook on June 7 to update the status of repairs, revealing that the peak of the issue “affected approximately 99% of Greenwich.” According to NBC, most of the issues have since been resolved, with only a handful of people still without power.