About 5,000 Bladen County residents were left in the dark after dark on Wednesday when a reported lightning strike at a substation knocked out power to customers of Duke Energy.

According to an estimation by representatives of Duke Energy, about 3,000 customers in Elizabethtown, about 1,200 customers in Bladenboro and close to 800 customers in the Clarkton area were without electricity for a period of time.

All customers were back on line with power before midnight.

Staff report