Wind causes major outages in Duval, Clay counties

Major power outages affected approximately 30,000 people in Clay and Duval counties Tuesday afternoon.

At least 27,000 customers were without power in Clay County after a transmission line lost power and caused outages at three Clay Electric substations before noon.

As of 2:30 p.m., 12,500 Clay customers were still without power. By 4:15, only 1,800 customers remained without power.

Thousands of JEA customers in Duval County were also without power throughout the day, according to the outage map.

More than 3,300 customers were without power in Duval County as of 2 p.m., according to the JEA outage map. Four hundred remained without power at 4:15 p.m.

Gerri Boyce with JEA said the outages in Duval County were likely caused by wind gusts in the area.

"What we're seeing are branches or trees getting into the lines causing these outages," she said.

Wayne Mattox with Clay Electric said the company found a faulty circuit switcher at its Brickyard substation.

This caused considerable damage to Clay Electric equipment and was likely why breakers opened on a FPL transmission line and caused the outages at Fleming Island and Russell substations, according to Mattox.

A tree on lines caused another power outage at the Maxville substation that affected 2,100 customers.

Another outage at Clay Electric's Green Cove substation left 2,300 members without power.  The cause for that outage is being investigated.

Clay Electric Co-op energy control personnel said high winds are likely the cause of most of the outages.

Cox Media Group