UPDATE 11:42am Power has been restored to several areas that have been affected by the outage. The Westar web site indicates that less than 1,000 customers are still without power just before noon.
Most should have power by early Friday afternoon.

UPDATE 11:37am. The Public Defenders Office is closed until the power is restored.

More than 3,000 Westar Energy customer were without power Friday morning after a bird caused a short at a north Salina substation.

The loss of power resulted from the problem at 2nd and North Streets.

Power was knocked out to a large portion of the downtown Salina business district, and residential areas surrounding downtown.

Power was out at the City/County Building, and at the Salina-Saline County Law enforcement Center. A generator was providing power to the Salina Police Department, Saline County Sheriff’s Office and Saline County Jail. Power was off at the Salina Municipal Court.

A few downtown intersections had no traffic signals working, so portable stop signs were placed at the intersections.

As of late Friday morning, estimates from the Westar Energy website indicated power could be restored by early afternoon.