Downtown power outages the result of flooded building

MILWAUKEE (WITI) -- We Energies crews on Sunday, January 12th were dealing with a power outage affecting customers in downtown Milwaukee, as Milwaukee Fire and cleanup crews handled flooding on N. Water Street.

According to the Outage Map on WeEnergies.com -- 42 customers remained without power late into Sunday. Those customers are contained to one building.

Meanwhile, the Milwaukee Fire Department and cleanup crews on Sunday dealt with flooding inside a building in the 300 block of N. Water Street -- across the street from the Milwaukee Public Market.

The building used to house the Aveda Institute. A FOX6 News crew saw water being pumped out of the building for hours Sunday.

Crews believe a pipe may have burst -- flooding the first floor and garage in the basement. FOX6 News spotted at least three cars waterlogged as a result of the flooding.

There is no word on the official cause of the burst pipe -- but the building's owner says the building was built back in 1905 -- so age and weather may have been contributing factors.

The power inside the building was shut off as crews tended to the flooding issue.

There are five tenants that use the building -- so it is unclear whether they'll be in business on Monday -- but crews are working to make that a reality.

An initial call for the downtown power outage came in on Sunday morning, January 12th -- and at that time, about 330 people were without power in downtown Milwaukee in the areas of Wisconsin Ave., Water Street, Buffalo and Erie -- the Third Ward and downtown.

The power outage also knocked out power to some traffic signals, and caused a bit of traffic confusion.

We Energies says the initial power outage was a result of the flooded downtown building.

About half of the customers affected had power restored by about 10:00 a.m. Power will be restored to the flooded building once the building has a chance to dry out and an electrician can get in and do an inspection.

FOX6 News has learned the building's owner and the vehicle owners have insurance.

We Energies will be on scene to inspect equipment, and the building will have a private electrician take a look at the wiring as well. A city inspector will also take a look at the building.