High winds were to blame for power outages in Jefferson on Tuesday.

Justin Foss, a spokesperson with Alliant Energy, says there were two separate, but related power outage incidents reported Tuesday evening.  The first happened around 6:15pm, which effected 700 customers, and the second was reported ten minutes later, effecting an additional 12 customers.

Foss says since there were no storms, crews couldn’t find any obvious signs of what may have caused the outages.  However, he believes that with high winds gusts, the outages may have been caused by the wind carrying tree limbs into the lines and shortening them out.  Usually, crews trim trees ten feet back, but when there are high enough winds, branches can briefly come into contact with a power line.  Foss points out that it’s their policy to have crews inspect every inch of a power line where the outage was reported.

Power was restored to all customers by 8pm.