Massive Blackout Grips Lubbock Early Saturday Morning [AUDIO]

The City of Lubbock suffered a major power outage in the early morning hours today.

A lightning arrestor failed at the Lubbock Power & Light Wadsworth Substation at East 34^th Street and Guava Avenue. The arrestor failed on a 69,000 volt transmission line. This caused over 75% of the city of Lubbock to lose power at 2:15 a.m.

In an exclusive interview with KFYO News, Paul Leonard with LP&L said the lightning arrestor unit would be removed from the Wadsworth Substation while an investigation takes place. The investigation will cover the failure of the unit and why backup systems failed, causing the outage.

During the blackout, it was pitch black on not just Lubbock streets, but Loop 289, the Marsha Sharp Freeway and I-27 as well.

Lubbock Power & Light crews were able to start restoring power to parts of the city around 3:30 a.m. Full restoration of power occurred after 5:15 a.m.

During the outage Texas Tech University operated on emergency generators.

KFYO News was the first broadcast media outlet on the air at 3:41 a.m. today with information about the blackout and KFYO News provided wall-to-wall coverage through 8:30 a.m.

The Emergency Operations Center of Lubbock was activated this morning to deal with the blackout. It was dropped down to half staffing levels after 6 a.m.

Because of the loss of power, the City of Lubbock has issued a Boil Water Notice. You can read more about the notice by clicking this link.

Audio of Lubbock City Councilman's exclusive interview with KFYO News: