Update: Power Outage Leaves 3,200 Urbandale Customers Without AC

UPDATE: 9 p.m.

Power has been restored to about 1,000 Urbandale customers of MidAmerican Energy, including the grounds of Lions Park where the city's July 4th carnival is going on, but power remained out for an unknown number of people.

Tina Pothoff, a spokeswoman for MidAmerican Energy, said the cause of the outage was not known Wednesday night.

Our Earlier Story

Homes and businesses in a significant chunk of Urbandale have been without power since 7:21 tonight, said MidAmerican Energy spokeswoman Tina Potthoff.

Crews are on the scene working to restore lights and air conditioning to 4,227 customers in the city.

The outage struck three large areas in Urbandale. In general the outage was between 70th and 86th streets from Hickman Road to as far north as Douglas. there were some areas of Clive that were out power and some as far west as 104th Street.  

About 114 Clive customers are without power, according to MidAmerican's website.

Lions Park at 72nd Street and Aurora Avenue -- the site of Urbandale's July 4th concert and carnival -- has lost power. But, the rides are powered by generators and the crowds continue to arrive.

However, several food vendors who lost power just about the time the crowds arrived and sat helpless for an hour and a half, were worried about breaking even financially

"It's pretty well going to be murder," said Larry Fyfe, who had three food stands that were without power. "It was bad to start with," he said, attributing fewer sales to the heat and the fact that the city moved the fireworks to Walker Johnston Park two years ago.

Naomi Wilkerson's food stand borrowed power from one of the carnival vendors who were operating on a generator so she could at least serve smoothies, but she couldn't cook any hot food.

Boy Scout Troop 43 packed up its trailer and left before 9 p.m. when the power came back on. The troop sold cotton candy, popcorn and shaved ice. Without power, they couldn't serve anything. 

Fireworks will still be launched as planned at 10 p.m. at Walker Johnston Park.

Go to MidAmerican's site online to report a power outage.

Check Urbandale Patch later tonight for updates.