ELKHART COUNTY — Thousands of homes were in the dark in St. Joseph and Elkhart counties Sunday morning. That caused headaches for homeowners and businesses alike.

"I woke up about 9:30 this morning and we had no power what so ever," said Erna Fisher.

Fisher was one of many left in the dark on Elkhart's west side. The power went out along a one-mile stretch of State Road 19, on either side of the road.

"I called the power company to say there was an outage and they said there was a major outage in Osceola and they had already been dispatched for that," Fisher said.

Among other things, gas stations could not pump gas and many businesses were closed for the morning. For some, it came at a busy time.

"All the food that was already prepared today for breakfast is going to be a waste. We're in the process of getting lunch ready and that will be wasted also. I guess we kind of have to stand and wait for the power to come back on," said Crystal Cox, manager of the Burger King on SR 19.

By mid-morning, she had to send some employees home.

Kenny Chang runs an Oriental restaurant that couldn't get ready to open up and lost some business. He was watching the clock
to see when power would be restored.

"We can't do anything about it. We're just waiting and waiting and we don't even have an idea exactly the time," he said.

Power was restored before noon. Indiana and Michigan Power officials say an animal got into the equipment at a substation, causing the outage.