Carowinds back to normal after power outage

Everything was back to normal Monday at Carowinds theme park after a power outage caused some rides to be shut down on Sunday, the second such occurrence in less than a week.

Laresa Thompson, a spokesperson for Carowinds, said Sunday’s outage occurred shortly before noon and all rides were back to normal by 4:30 p.m. The affected rides were closed, and riders were evacuated.

Duke Energy spokesperson Paige Layne said the outage was caused by a bad underground cable which was repaired and the power was returned by 2:30 p.m.

She said the exact cause of the damage to the cable is unknown and is still under investigation by Duke Energy.

The park, which straddles the North Carolina-South Carolina line, offered refunds and rain checks to visitors who decided to leave for the day.

Duke Energy officials attributed the power outage last Thursday night to a damaged transformer. The outage left riders stuck on at least three rides, including the Windseeker, a swinging rotating rides that is 301-feet tall.

Riders on the Windseeker, which is the tallest ride in the park, were left stranded for two hours before being evacuated.

This story was originally published June 13, 2016 at 2:36 PM with the headline "Carowinds back to normal after power outage."