The car accident snapped the pole in half, and wires are dangling from the accident site, said Sally Thelen, spokeswoman for Duke Energy.
That pole carries high-voltage lines, and those lines are too hot to repair safely while they are live, she said.
Therefore, workers have to de-energize the line, which in turn will de-energize the substations that feed electricity to Oxford. Then workers will set about replacing the pole, a process that will take two to three hours, she said.
Miami University is prepared for this outage with backup generators, said spokeswoman Claire Wagner.
“While the power company may not restore power for two to three hours, campus should have power restored in less time, Wagner wrote in an email to the campus.
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