If you like mysteries . . . go visit the South Central Public Power District.

Maybe by the time this edition of the paper is received by our many fine readers, it will not be a mystery any more. However, as of the time of this writing, the exact cause of the electrical system failure on Saturday night is a mystery. Just as a rain storm was visiting a lot of Nuckolls and Clay counties, a large part of Northern Nuckolls County and western Clay County were without power. The Lawrence area was out of power for about 3 1/2 hours while north to Fairfield, Clay Center and the Research Center were out for a around six or seven hours.

On Monday morning, Mr. Craig Cox, SCPPD manager, said the utility company was searching for the exact cause. The suspect is lightning, but no exact cause had been found by this time.

The primary interest in the failure centered on the Pauline sub-station, specifically a 690,000 volt line that feeds five sub-stations.

Any distribution problems involving the Pauline station usually involved getting Nebraska Public Power District involved. That was done, but it took time and SCPPD picked up pieces of the distribution system as time went on. The southern area was the first area back on line and eventually the northern part involving the Research Center, Fairfield, Clay Center and surrounding areas had power restored.

Pole and wire damage was not great with the most damage being ten poles down near Clay Center. This event was not related to the greater outage, however.

Mr. Cox appeared to be shaking his head over the cause of the outage, but retained his sense of humor. “It was almost like the system healed itself,” he said. Too bad it had to involve so many other people along the way,” he added.

SCPPD had people out Monday morning surveying the system to pinpoint the exact cause . . . unless the whole thing continues to be a mystery.