Steve Quayle News Alerts

Oct 9, 2004
MILWAUKEE - About 17,000 We Energies customers, including the Mitchell International Airport, were affected by a power outage Saturday night.

The incident was reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation by the Oak Creek Police Department, said Maripat Blankenheim, spokeswoman for the American Transmission Company.

Oak Creek Police Chief Tom Bauer said authorities consider the incident "suspicious."

The outage was triggered by a transmission tower's falling on another one, which took out some We Energies distribution lines, officials said. Some bolts were missing at the towers.

"It seems to me there's no logical reason to it," Bauer said of the fallen towers.

Blankenheim agreed it is unusual for the towers to topple.

"It's a beautiful Saturday afternoon and the towers tipped over. It's not an act of God," she said.

The FBI declined to say if foul play is involved.

"All we have is the Oak Creek Police Department advised us of what happened. It may or may not be anything," said Linda Krieg, an FBI supervisor in Milwaukee.

The outage started at 5:40 p.m. and customers in parts of Cudahy, South Milwaukee, Oak Creek and Franklin areas were without power as of 7:30 p.m., said Wendy Parks, We Energies spokeswoman.

We Energies was trying to reroute power for affected customers Saturday night.

Several hundred passengers, about a dozen incoming flights and a dozen departures were affected by the outage, said airport spokeswoman Pat Rowe. The delay range from a few minutes to an hour, she said.

The outage shut down the security screening equipment, and passengers and their luggage had to be hand screened, she said.

The power was back up at the airport at about 7:30 p.m., she said.

All other customers had their power back up by 9:40 p.m., Parks said.

http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/politics/9880024.htm

Comment from Doug Hagmann:
As this INTEL-REPORT was being written, an investigator in South Milwaukee was interviewed by HQ INTEL-ALERT editor Doug Hagmann. According to this source, two major power transformers were either shot by a person or persons unknown one after another, or had some type of small explosive charge affixed to the units. In either case, this was a deliberate act of sabotage that appears to have been directed at the airport and its support facilities.

www.HomelandSecurityUS.com
Douglas J. Hagmann
Director, Northeast Intelligence Network