A on the blink transformer knocked out power at the Smithfield Foods pork processing plant around lunch time last Friday. Some workers were even sent back home, who were employed in the shift during the 3-hour outage, but with gallant efforts power was restored back by 3 p.m., in time for the 2nd shift to resume its work on time and with no effective back logs, reported Dennis Pittman, director of communications for Smithfield. Pittman said it is unclear whether, if any of the item for consumption inside was affected due to the 3 hour long power outage, but it's very much unlikely to hamper the storages within such a short outage.