Aug. 3, 2000

About 1,500 people in Tooele were still without power late Thursday night, because an overheated transformer forced Utah Power to shut things down earlier in the day.

Originally 7,000 customers in Tooele and Stockton were left powerless. But crews restored much of the power and expected to have it all back on by mid-morning Friday.

The forced outage also played havoc with Tooele's water, because power to the water pumping stations was affected.

As a result, residents were asked to curtail the use of water inside and out, and NOT to call 911 about power or water problems.

Thursday's change in the weather is what Utah Power crews have been waiting for. Hopefully, it's enough to cool down a lot of overheated transformers which have been overloaded for the past two weeks.

Workers spent almost all day Thursday at the Tooele substation, where temperatures have ranged between 100 and 106 for the past week.

An overheated transformer spewed oil all over the place. When crews arrived, they said the temperature on the metal was so high you could cook an egg on it.

Without power, most downtown businesses came to a standstill.

At the Tooele courthouse, a few emergency backup lights came on. But for the most part it was business NOT as usual under candlelight and flashlights.

JULIE HAWS, TOOELE COUNTY: "THE COURTS ARE COMPLETELY SHUT DOWN. THEY CAN'T HOLD COURTS BECAUSE OF THAT."

Though this was the second time in the past two weeks Tooele has been without power, residents like Mary Sharp and Zial Maughan seem to be taking it in stride.

"I JUST SIT AND WAIT FOR IT TO COME BACK ON."

"DON'T KNOW THAT I CAN CRITICIZE ANYBODY - BUT IT WOULD BE NICE IF THE POWER WAS ON."

Utah Power says the major problem with transformers across the Wasatch Front is that with temperature at night above 75 degrees, the transformers never can cool down.