Linda Robertson, who lives at the corner of Mill Street and Willow in Gallatin, was reading an email inside her home when she heard a loud explosion and her lights, computers, everything electrical shut down.
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Smoke from the utility pole before it was replaced
“It sounded like a bomb,” she said. “It went kapowi and everything went off.”
Gallatin city crews quickly responded to repair the blown transformer. The damage split the wood crosspieces and a new pole had to be installed. The lights were out in the southern section of town for about four hours. The First Baptist Church on the east side was off, but the school was on. Southside still had electricity, but the newspaper office did not.
In the meantime, there was not much for Linda and her family to do but wait. It was not, ironically, the first time she has been inconvenienced by electrical contraptions going haywire. She said that last year she was one of three passengers in the elevator at the Daviess County Courthouse when it got stuck.
Linda Robertson standing in front of the damaged utility pole
“I had a broken ankle at the time and had to take the elevator for a court date,” she said. “It was me and two men; one was an older gentleman wearing leg braces.”
A worker from out-of-town had to be called to fix the problem.
“The people there were very kind and helpful,” Ms. Robertson said. “They opened the door so we could get air and put fans to cool us down and brought water. Emergency care was available for us when the doors finally opened.”
She said the ordeal with the busted elevator lasted two hours. The busted electrical pole took longer to fix. Before noon, Linda and her daughter and granddaughter decided to make the most of it. They walked to the county library to use its computers and planned to go uptown to eat.