Power Outage Brings Downtown Bemidji To A Stand Still

A power outage in downtown Bemidji brought the city’s core to a standstill.

The downtown area lost power shortly before 3:00 Friday afternoon, leaving business and traffic at a stand still. The power outage left many of Bemidji’s traffic lights dark, creating bumper to bumper traffic along Highway 197.

Otter Tail Power said they had crews dispatched and out patrolling the lines trying to locate the problem. Around 640 Otter Tail Power customers were without service.

Shortly before 5:00 Friday evening most of the power had been restored to the downtown area. The cause of the outage remains unknown.