Update: Crews have repaired the damaged substation and customers should not experience any  interruptions in their power, barring any other unusual occurence. See the latest story here. 

LEESBURG — Leesburg Electric crews are working Wednesday to try and fix the damage caused by a lightning strike that cut power to thousands of customers Tuesday.

City Commissioner Dan Robuck III posted this warning on Facebook this morning: “If you are in the downtown area try to get things done this morning as it’s possible you will lose power again today.

“The east substation that serves the downtown area still has significant damage. The electric department was able to shift load in order to bring the area back up. However, if a way to fix this substation is not complete soon, we will have issues in this area throughout the day as more energy is required.”

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Lightning struck a Duke Power transmission line Tuesday evening at the substation by the Cutrale orange juice plant on U.S. Highway 441.

“It knocked power out to three of our five substations,” Leesburg City Manager Al Minner said.

Those substations service the areas of Lake Square Mall, Center Street and the Cutrale juice plant, Minner said. The power came back on around 8:15 p.m. near the Lake Square Mall, but it other areas had to wait until around 10:30 p.m.

It knocked out power to about 10,000 to 15,000 of Leesburg Electric’s 27,000 customers, Minner said.

The affected areas were all points east and south from the intersection of Citizens Boulevard and U.S. 441, along with localized distribution areas, according to a city press release.