SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The stairwell down to Surly Bob's Sports Bar was pitch black Tuesday afternoon when a citywide power outage struck at 2:30 p.m.

An hour and a half later, three employees were still sitting in the dark by candlelight wondering if the lights would come on in time for them to finish preparing for their catering job at the Coast Fraser Tower.

"We've got a lot of prep work to do because the food has to be ready for 5 p.m.," said Jim Taylor, a server and bartender at the bar.

He said it was lucky there were only a couple of customers in the restaurant at the time of the outage, although with it lasting until shortly after 4 p.m., he said the bar may miss out on the after-work crowd who would have been sent home after the first hour without electricity.

The prep cooks at Twist worked through the outage, chopping vegetables in the glow of back-up lights, said Twist chef, Ethan Mackenzie.

"It's pretty well lit, there's several flashlights and the emergency lights are on," he said while taking a break outside. "Hopefully the power comes back on so we can have a dinner rush."

At 4:05 p.m. the power returned for the people downtown and five minutes later, the lights in Frame Lake South flickered back to life.

The power outage stemmed from a problem with the main transformer at the Jackfish Lake substation, said Mike Bradshaw, NWT Power Corp. spokesman.

Bradshaw said his recorded outage time began at 3:04 p.m. and only lasted 50 minutes, although Northland Utilities and Yellowknifer staff noted the outage began at about 2:30 p.m. and ended at 4:05 p.m.

Bradshaw said any outage before his recorded time was a problem originating with Northland Utilities, which distributes electricity to customers in Yellowknife.

Albert Bouchard, operations superintendent with Northland Utilities, said it wasn't Northland

equipment that failed.

"It was a generation issue. (The power corp.) were having some issues with some equipment," he said.

Jerry Sweet, a network analyst for the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs, was standing on the street when he saw the lights turn on. He said although the rest of his colleagues at the office had cleared out after the first hour without power, he was heading back to work to ensure the computers were functioning properly.

"We're gonna check and make sure everything is working. That's why I'm still hanging out," he said.

"Most of the computers have battery backups, but it was a pretty vicious power outage."

Sweet said with a power outage, it's possible power surges could burn out computers or other network systems.

"There's a good chance that we'll be really, really busy tomorrow morning," he said as he headed back to the office.