Equipment problems at MTEMC's Watertown Substation left about 5,000 cooperative members in that area without power for more than six hours Sunday, June 24.

The outage began at 9:17 a.m. Power was restored at 3:50 p.m. The affected areas included Watertown, Alexandria and Statesville. MTEMC personnel worked through the day to restore power.

Though tied to equipment failure, the precise cause of the outage is still under investigation.

The high for Sunday was officially 98 degrees.

"We are sorry our members were inconvenienced for this long, particularly on a day as hot as this one," said Chris Jones, MTEMC vice president of communications and member services. "Our people worked very hard to restore as quickly as possible."