A power failure, which forced many Iowa State students and Campustown businesses to go without electricity for nearly an hour Friday morning, was caused by an equipment malfunction, said Ames Electric Distribution Superintendent Phil Rust.

A piece of equipment located on North Hyland Avenue was clearing itself.

This clearing caused the electricity to go off both Thursday night and Friday morning, Rust said.

The problem did not become apparent until Friday, when the failure was widespread enough to send up red flags.

“This time it did enough damage to itself that we could see what was wrong with it,” Rust said.

“It’s been isolated and is under repair. Everything should be back to normal.”

The power failure extended west from Beach to Franklin Street. Police officers could be seen directing traffic at the corner of Lincoln Way and Welch Ave., and business in Campustown was quieter due to the loss of electricity.

“We shut off all our machines and continued to take orders,” said Copyworks employee Elaine Cheaney.

“None of the machines broke and we didn’t blow any fuses. We were lucky.”

We Care Hair, 127 Welch Ave., also remained open during the power failure, though customers were forced to leave the salon with wet hair, said hair stylist Jen Roberts.

“It would’ve been nice to have electricity. I did all the haircuts in the dark,” she said.

The equipment that caused the power failure was purchased last summer by the Ames Municipal Electric System, Rust said, and it is most likely a manufacturing defect. Rust said he plans to contact the manufacturer as soon as possible.

The electric system hotline, which customers can call with problems or complaints, reported receiving nearly 100 phone calls during Friday morning’s failure.

“I missed class this morning because my alarm didn’t go off,” said Ellie Stewart, a senior in environmental engineering. “It went out at about 10 a.m. and came back on a little before 11 a.m.”

Juli Nordyke, who lives with Stewart at 300 Stanton Ave., said she was cut off from a long-distance call while using her cordless telephone.

“We were so bored because we couldn’t watch T.V. We had a lot of visitors, and we all just sat around and talked,” Nordyke, a senior in marketing, said.

“We thought about going to the store and getting ice for our refrigerated food.”