MidAmerican officials say thousands of customers lost power on Sioux City's Northside, Tuesday night. KTIV was among those in the dark for about an hour.
But, as you can imagine, it takes a lot to get a TV station back up and running again. In fact, we came with in ten minutes of not having a 10:00 p.m. newscast.
"When you came outside, what did you see?" Forrest Saunders asked.
"Darkness," said a Floyd Food and Fuel clerk.
KTIV went dark along with 6,400 of Sioux City's Northside. The cause was just across the street at the Floyd substation, where a pesky lightning arrestor, arrested itself into failure.
MidAmerican crews got things working in about an hour's time. But once the lights were on, trouble was just starting at KTIV.
"We're going to call it out and just roll with the punches," said KTIV News Director Bridget Breen.
Turning a TV station back on isn't as easy as flipping a switch.
"You see all these big fancy machines? Well, they all need to be started back up in sections... and that can be kind of difficult when you're short on time," Forrest said.
There was less than an hour to get computers running again. And the last program to come back online was our script maker; just ten minutes before broadcast.
"Here we go," said Director MaryAnn Farley.
But, with only seconds to spare we made it, just in time.
"We're glad to be back," Anchor Kristie VerMulm said.
Proving we've got powerful people, even in a power outage.
