Falling Tree Knocks Out Power to 2,100 in Iowa City

A tree stretches across the 900 block of Washington Street in Iowa City on Wednesday, July 18, 2012. The tree hit a power line, leaving over 2,000 without power on Wednesday afternoon. (Hayley Bruce/The Gazette)

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By KCRG Intern

Story Created: Jul 18, 2012 at 5:33 PM CDT

Story Updated: Jul 18, 2012 at 5:40 PM CDT

IOWA CITY, Iowa — A tree that appears to have rotten out and fallen over Washington Street hitting a power line has put roughly 2,100 people without power in Iowa City.

Officials with MidAmerican Energy said the outages began at about 3:31 p.m. Wednesday. The tree initially put 2,115 without power, but authorities said they have now restored power to all but 629 locations.

Two officers with the Iowa City police department have since blocked off the road and have begun re-routing traffic.

A representative with MidAmerican said crews are on site, but they do not have a time frame for when power will be restored.

The tree resides on property owned by Hayek Real Estate, and a maintenance worker with the company said he noticed the base of the tree had begun to rot out two weeks ago. He also said the landlords had called a tree company to take care of the tree, but it fell before their appointment.

A crew to remove the tree arrived at the location just before 5 p.m.

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