Savannah blast. (Franklin Headley/Savannah Morning News)
An underground explosion in downtown Savannah Monday morning shut down City Hall, and resulted in the evacuation of nearby businesses.
There were no injuries; police say the blast broke a window at a nearby restaurant.
Electricity went out in some areas, including the city's historic district, according to Savannah Police spokeswoman Judy Powell:
"It looks like that most of the power is going to be on in most of the areas before 4 pm, and the only areas they are expecting to be closed are the areas closest to the where the original incident occurred around Drayton and Bay street."Powell said that City Hall would remain closed until tomorrow.
Police say the explosion occurred around 8:45am near Abercorn and Bay streets, and blew off three manhole covers, igniting three separate fires. Firefighters doused flames from the blast by 10am.
Georgia Power spokesman Jeff Wilson said the explosion may have been caused by a cable fire, but couldn't confirm the report:
"We still do not know the cause of the outage and explosion; we'll be investigating that throughout the day, and once the equipment cools, that will enable us to go in there and determine the exact cause."Wilson said about 60 Georgia Power customers lost service.
A similar explosion occurred in August, but Wilson said it was unclear if the causes were related.
