A large American flag that flew atop WWE’s headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut, was ripped loose during severe weather on Saturday night and became tangled in high-voltage power lines near the Stamford Train Station, triggering widespread power outages across Stamford and Greenwich.

Emergency crews were called to the scene, but Stamford Deputy Fire Chief Matt Palmer explained there was little firefighters could do beyond monitoring the situation and alerting utility providers. Although the flag caused electrical arcing after becoming caught in the lines, no fire broke out. The flag was eventually removed early Sunday and was said to have suffered significant damage.

According to Eversource spokesperson Kaitlyn Woods, the initial incident left around 5,000 Stamford customers without electricity after the flag came into contact with transmission lines. Power was restored to approximately 3,000 customers within 20 minutes. However, the situation escalated again on Sunday while crews worked to remove the flag and repair the damaged infrastructure.

Woods explained, “There are two separate transmission circuits on the structure. While our crews were working to remove the flag, it shifted and made contact with the energized line that was keeping power flowing to our customers. The outage impacted more than 20,000 of our customers in Greenwich. Our crews just safely restored one of the lines in the past few minutes, and we’ll start getting the power back on soon for our customers impacted.”

She also detailed how the flag unexpectedly moved while crews were coordinating its removal.

“Our crews were coordinating to remove the flag when it shifted on its own and made contact with the line that caused the outage. Approximately 40,000 of our customers were impacted this afternoon, and we isolated the outage, and restored power as quickly and safely as possible.”

The outages resulted in several road closures across Stamford as utility crews worked to stabilize the area and restore service. Most affected customers had power returned by Sunday evening, with remaining issues largely resolved by early Monday morning.