Update, 10 a.m., Wednesday, March 25:

AEP Texas has confirmed that a utility worker whose body was recovered from a manhole in downtown Corpus Christi after an apparent electrocution on Tuesday, March 24, was one of their employees.

“An AEP Texas employee suffered fatal injuries Tuesday morning following an incident in downtown Corpus Christi,” the electric company said in a statement. “We send our deepest condolences to the family of our employee and to our entire organization following this sad news,” the company said.

The Nueces County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed to MySA that the man was 53-year-old Lee Wane. His cause of death has yet to be determined and remains under investigation.

Original story, Tuesday, March 24:

The Nueces County Medical Examiner’s Office is investigating the cause of death of a utility worker whose body was recovered from a manhole in downtown Corpus Christi on Tuesday, March 24.

The incident left thousands without power as first responders worked to recover the body, according to reporting by KRIS 6 and KIII 3NEWS. The incident occurred at the 600 block of Mestina Street, not far from the Corpus Christi Cathedral. The Corpus Christi Fire Department responded to “reports of a possible electrical accident,” 3NEWS reported.

“At approximately 11:30am our crews were called to the 600 block of Mestina for possible electrocution,” Corpus Christi Fire Marshal Juan A. “Tony” Perez told MySA in an emailed statement, adding that about 27 firefighters responded to the scene.

“Upon arrival our crews identified a confined space incident with a utility worker approximately 10ft. below ground level. Fire department personnel upgraded the response to a confined space rescue,” Perez said.

Power was cut to the area as crews worked to recover the utility worker, whose identity has not been released. When first responders were able to reach the man, they discovered he was already deceased and proceeded to safely remove his body from the confined space. 3NEWS reports the utility worker had been the only person in the manhole.

The power outages affected several city departments, including police headquarters.

“Due to power outages in the downtown area, all services out of Main Station are currently closed. This includes Municipal Court, Central Records, Property, and the Criminal Investigations Division,” the Corpus Christi Police Department said on social media.

“All departments are expected to be back open for normal business hours tomorrow, March 25th,” the post further reads.

An AEP outage map shows multiple overlapping outages impacting hundreds of customers in downtown as of 4 p.m. The outages were expected to last “for an extended period of time,” Perez said.