Prosperity turned into a ghost town on Wednesday as the town was without power for 17 hours.

The town lost power just after midnight due to a problem at a Duke Power substation, which feeds the Town of Prosperity electric service.

Prosperity Mayor Larry Spotts said Duke Power has not determined what caused the outage. Also the local utility department had a regulator to blow while Duke Power was turning the system back on. Newberry Electric Co-op help the town officials get the problem repaired and loaned them a unit.

Spotts said he thanks everyone, who tried to help with the outage.

The power was restored just after 5 p.m.

But for downtown Prosperity businesses like the Main Dish the outage meant no business.

Restaurant owners Rachel and Chris Lapham made the decision to close the business until the power returned which caused the family to lose the day's profits. If the electric outage had lasted much longer the business would have lost some of their perishable foods.

At Bowers BP customers could purchase ice cream or hot dogs cooked with grills run by generators. But the gas tanks went without power.

Owner Mark Bowers said he also lost business but “it was wide open“ when the power returned.

Bowers, who is also the town's fire chief, said he made sure the fire departments electronically controlled doors were open in case of an emergency.

The Town Hall staff was at work, said Spotts, but they did not have any phones or electricity.