Happy Birthday balloon causes power outage in Abbeville

When power goes out unexpectedly, it’s often a result of bad weather causing a tree branch to fall on a line.
Squirrels are even the issue many times. Here’s a new one...a balloon.
Around 80 percent of Abbeville lost power for about and hour and a half Tuesday evening as a result of a balloon hitting a power line.
“It was a freak accident,” Abbeville Mayor Mark Piazza said. “It was a Happy Birthday balloon. It was from a birthday party, from what I understand.
“One of those Helium  balloons got loose and wrapped around a main transmission line.”
That caused some electrical arcing.
“It actually knocked out the brand-new transformer that was recently installed at the Pete Noel Substation,” Piazza said.
The Walter “Pete” Noel Substation, located near Abbeville High School, is the city’s main power source.
“It caused an outage to almost 80 percent of Abbeville,” Piazza said.
The only areas that did not lose power were parts of the La. 14 Bypass and the west side of the Vermilion River.
“That was on one circuit of the Bypass substation Piazza said.
Everything was up and running properly around 7 p.m.
“There was an insignificant amount of damage to the transformer,” Piazza said. “It was able to be restored once they assessed what the problem was.”
It’s hard to believe the problem was a balloon from someone’s party.
“I have never heard of that happening before,” Piazza said. “Anything that touches that line can cause arcing. It just so happens that it was a balloon. I couldn’t believe it when they told me.
“That’s what they found...a birthday balloon.”