The lights went out in parts of Green Bay right after 4 p.m. Thursday. One day later, Prince Edward County sheriff’s deputies are still searching for the driver that caused it all. At about 4:10 p.m., deputies and Virginia Department of Transportation officials were called out to U.S. 360, just about 7.4 miles west of the U.S. 460 interchange. 

“A logging truck struck a power pole and knocked down power lines,” Prince Edward Sheriff Tony Epps said in a statement. 

Now deputies are still searching for the logging truck’s driver, because he left the scene. The knocked down power lines caused the lights to go out for multiple neighborhoods in the area. Some of them didn’t get power back until about 10 p.m. And as for other drivers, Epps asked people to avoid the area if possible, to make cleanup easier. Even with that request, the road didn’t fully reopen to traffic until 10:28 p.m.

For six hours, work crews and deputies had to close lanes and direct traffic. They also had to coordinate with the power company, whose workers had to reattach the lines. That meant occasionally shifting lane closures from one to the other, as a replacement power pole had to be installed, with new lines. 

Originally expected to be cleared up within an hour, because of so many groups to coordinate with, it eventually turned into a six-hour project. Meanwhile, deputies are still trying to identify the driver of that logging truck. 

Epps asks if anyone has information about the Green Bay incident or the logging truck in question, to please call the sheriff’s office at 434-392-8101.