A downed live wire that ignited the top of a telephone pole caused heavy traffic and left residents around Southwest 20th Avenue without power Monday, Gainesville Regional Utilities officials said.
A road closure near Southwest 40th Terrace backed up cars along Southwest 20th all the way to Southwest 34th Street, with some having to wait more than half an hour.
Regional Transit System buses redirected routes from the road until about 9 p.m., according to radio transmissions.
"We don't know what caused it," said Bobby Cox, a GRU line worker. "Could've been anything - lightning, anything."
Cox said he received a call at about 3:50 p.m. to go to Southwest 20th Avenue near Lyons Apartments, where the wire, charged with 7,200 volts, had hit the pavement.
Rong Ran, who has lived in Lyons Apartments for 2 years, said her 16-year-old daughter warned her of the outage.
"I was coming home from work, and I was getting some food, and she told me, 'Mom, there's no electricity, so you cannot cook,'" Ran said.
Joe Young, a line worker for GRU, said he did not know the extent of the outage, or how many people would be affected by it.
