Thousands of people in Cambridge found themselves suddenly in the dark Thursday when the power went out in Cambridge.
About 17,000 homes and businesses went dark before 5 p.m. because of an issue with a transmission line, said Michael Durand, an NStar spokesman. More than 28 percent of NStar customers in Cambridge were without power.
Durand said there was no time frame for when the power would be back on and that crews are investigating the issue, which impacted the East Cambridge and Kendall Square areas.
Police officers were sent to various intersections where traffic lights went out and urged caution for motorists.
The MBTA was experiencing significant delays on the Red Line because of the outage, T officials said.
A rumor spread through Twitter that a Red Line train hit a deer causing the delays, but a spokesman said that was not the case.
