Power outage disrupts traffic control, generates numerous 911 calls

A power outage that stretched from Oaklawn Park south to the Doubletree by Hilton Hot Springs affected a number of traffic control lights on Saturday, the Hot Springs Police Department said around noon in a Facebook post.

The post said that emergency personnel were “doing their best to assist.”

“If you approach a traffic-controlled intersection and it’s not functioning please use caution and treat it as a fourway stop intersection,” it said.

“Also refrain from using our 911 emergency line to report outages, this line is for emergencies only. Our dispatch is working hard to get to every call received and are experiencing a high call volume through 911 from citizens to report the power outage or ask what’s going on. We are afraid real emergencies may be missed because of non-emergency calls tying up our emergency lines,” police said.

The cause of the outage could not be confirmed by presstime Saturday.