A large U.S. flag flown at World Wrestling Entertainment headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut, blew off its pole and hit power lines, causing electricity to go out for thousands.
The blackout started Saturday amid a storm that ripped off the 3,000-square-foot flag and sent it straight into the electric lines, the Stamford Fire Department said, according to New York City’s WCBS-TV.
“There’s very little we could do other than monitor it and notify utility companies,” Stamford Fire Department Deputy Chief Matt Palmer told the Stamford Advocate.
The blackout affected 5,000 people, with 3,000 getting their power back within 20 minutes, Kaitlyn Woods, a spokesperson for power provider Eversource Energy, told the New Haven Register.
The company was still working to repair the transmission structure at 1 p.m. Sunday when the same flag made contact with an energized line. This second incident knocked out the power to 20,000 customers in nearby Greenwich, Ms. Woods told the Register.
“Definitely bizarre to see the flag wrapped around there, and for it to cause that. It’s pretty wild,” Michael Saluzzi, a store owner in Greenwich, told WCBS.
The outages in both areas were mostly resolved by Monday morning, according to the Advocate.
