Everything was back to normal last night after two electricity poles and an 800lb transformer crashed to the ground causing damage and disruption.

But an investigation is under way to find out why the beams in Pomander Road, Paget, collapsed causing about 40 Belco customers, including the Royal Hamilton Amateur Dingy Club and Pomander Gate Tennis Club, to have their electricity supplies cut off.

Three cars were also damaged in the crash, including a Mitsubishi Lancer owned by head of Bermuda National Gallery Laura Gorham, which suffered extensively after feeling the full brunt of one of the electricity beams.

A spokeswoman for Belco said a full investigation was underway to find out why one of the poles had a clean break at its base, causing it to crash down.

She said how it had come to suffer damage was not clear, but it was not believed to have been affected by the high winds over the weekend.

The Belco spokeswoman said one pole fell, taking the transformer with it and causing the second pole to collapse, too.

Three spans of high voltage overhead line were affected, along with one low voltage overhead line, and some underground electricity cables.

BTC and Cablevision also had cables brought down in the incident at about 11 p.m. on Wednesday.

Residents who heard the poles crashing down contacted Police, who attended the scene and in turn called out Belco workers.

Servicemen worked through the night and by 10.30 a.m. yesterday, half of Belco's 40 affected customers were re-connected.

By 1 p.m. all but five had their power returned, and by 4 p.m. yesterday, everyone was back to normal.

The spokeswoman said it was very fortunate the accident did not cause more damage, and even injury.

She said: "We are investigating the cause of the incident now, but if wear and tear had been a significant issue, then the high winds during the hurricane at the weekend would have brought the poles down. The pole that initially snapped had a clean break at its base. That is under investigation to find out why.

"It was very fortunate that nobody was hurt. Somebody could have been hurt and there could have been more damage. The transformer is very heavy. We are also very appreciative of the co-operation of residents and customers along Pomander Road because they have been very patient.

"Right now we can't say whether the liability of what happened is ours or somebody else's. We won't know that until the investigation is complete.'' Manager of the dinghy club Joseph Decampos Guerra said it was not too badly affected by the outage as its supplies were re-connected by 10.30 a.m.

yesterday. However, he said there was some disruption to traffic as the damaged cars were in the road, along with Belco repair men.

He added: "We were very fortunate as everything came back on in time for us, as we open for lunch. Luckily, we did not have any seminars on, so our customers were not affected.'' Ms Gorham was not available for comment.

Black-out: The scene at Pomander Road, Paget, after the electricity beams crashed.

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