The investigation is complete and officials are saying it was an unfortunate and unlikely series of events that led to the massive power outage that left downtown south bend in the dark for several days. Indiana-Michigan Power officials say that it was a 50 year old low-voltage cable that sparked the outage. The cable overheated, causing a newer rubber insulated cable to melt and start emitting gases. Those then ignited a fire that melted two of the three high voltage power cables that fed into an underground transformer. It truly was a perfect storm; officials say that those three cables meet together in less than 10 percent of their downtown manholes. The South Bend tribune reports that I&M is in the process of replacing its oldest secondary cables, but that will take some time to complete.
