Truck briefly knocks out power to hospital, newspaper and other businesses

A truck at the Temple-Inland paper mill struck a guy wire to a utility pole, resulting in a power outage to the LSU Bogalusa Medical Center and other parts of Bogalusa Monday.

Sections of the hospital were without power for about 15 minutes, said Kurt Scott, the hospital CEO. Normally, the hospital has two generators in case of power outages, but one of the generators was being serviced and a temporary backup generator for it did not kick on when the power went out. While the power outage at the hospital did cause some confusion, no one was injured during the incident, Scott said.

On Columbia Street, traffic lights were powerless, causing police to direct traffic and put up temporary stop signs at intersections.

A mill official said a contract truck driver hit a guy wire to a utility pole on the mill property, and that caused the power outage.

The Daily News office on Ave. V lost power for about 45 minutes. It was restored around noon.