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For a few hours Friday night and into Saturday morning, the only lights on in some Joplin neighborhoods were solar-powered pathway lights at ground level.
A power outage across Jasper and Newton counties left at its peak more than 5,800 customers without power. Main Street from about 15th Street south was dark, and others on social networks reported widespread outages throughout southwestern Joplin.
The outage occurred at around 11:30 Friday night. Power was restored to areas in southern Joplin at about 2 a.m. Saturday. As of 2:30 a.m., Empire District Electric Company reported on its website that about 1,100 in mainly Newton County were still affected.
The reason for the blackout on a day, where temperatures reached into the high 90s, has not been released to the public yet. Calls requesting comment were forwarded to corporate officials, who could not be reached overnight.
The National Weather Service has issued an excessive heat warning for Saturday, with a forecasted high temperature of 99 degrees.
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