DOBSON — Friday’s power outage in the town of Dobson caused headaches for town employees, but officials say things are now back to normal.

Power was out across the town Friday during the worst of the winter storm, according to Town Manager Josh Smith.

“We lost power at around 9 a.m., and it wasn’t restored until close to 4 p.m.,” he said.

Smith said power was out after a truck ran into a primary power supply near Wayne Farms.

“A truck actually lost control, hit and took out a primary transformer that powers the town,” he said.

The resulting blackout affected town administration, the county sheriff’s office, the county jail, the judicial building, Surry Community College, pumping stations and the town’s water treatment plant.

Sheriff Graham Atkinson said the outage caused quite a bit of concern among local law enforcement.

“Our power was out at the jail from around 10 a.m., until about 2:50 p.m.,” he said. “We had emergency heaters brought in for the inmates at the jail and lunch had already been prepared so we were set for feeding them.

“The biggest problems involved lights and heat, but we had emergency plans already in place,” he said.

At the time of the outage, the jail was housing between 65 and 70 inmates.

But the headaches weren’t limited to county law enforcement.

“It was a pretty serious situation,” Smith said. “It certainly made things difficult logistically. We had difficulty getting in touch with staff and were pretty worried about getting personnel in place where traffic lights were out. Every light in town was out of service.”

Smith said town officials called in additional police officers and secured the services of volunteer firefighters.

“We called in public works staff as well,” he said. “Even administrative staff was assisting. We’re extremely proud of the efforts of everyone involved.

“It would have been much easier for some of them to just stay at home, but they came in and did their job. No one complained and we were able to get generators going to power essential services.”

Reach Keith Strange at kstrange@civitasmedia.com or 719-1929.