AUBURN – A blown transformer knocked out power to a section of the city Friday night, causing chaos for police and leaving more than 3,000 homes and businesses in the dark.

The two-hour blackout affected nearly a hundred streets and roads between Minot Avenue and Lake Street and parts of New Gloucester.

In Auburn, traffic lights blinked out and emergency dispatchers were unable to access their databases, causing turmoil for police trying to control traffic and investigate complaints.

About 40 streets in New Gloucester were listed as being without power before the lights came back on. Lewiston was not affected by the outage.

The lights went out at about 7:20 p.m. A Central Maine Power Co. spokesman said 3,184 customers were affected. Power was restored at about 9:15 p.m.

The problem occurred across four circuits at one of the city substations but the cause was not immediately known. CMP sent crews to investigate and planned to try to restore service by rerouting power while repairs were being made.

In the minutes after the power went out, police scrambled to steer motorists through some of the busiest intersections as traffic lights failed. Public Works crews were sent out with stop signs to ease the burden on police.

In some areas, the outage seemed arbitrary. Homes on streets between Minot Avenue and Court Street went dark while most neighborhoods on the Summer Street side of Court were not affected. At the same time, homes along Park Avenue, between Court and Lake streets were in the dark.

Businesses along Center Street, likewise, were not hit by the outage, meaning bars and stores in that area were able to continue doing business.