A man arrested for drunk driving was being blamed for blacking out several Halifax neighbourhoods Friday morning.

Police say an SUV hit a power pole at about 2 a.m., shearing it completely, and shutting down power to several west-end neighbourhoods in the city.

The man behind the wheel was arrested for impaired driving and refusing a breathalyzer test.

Police say he was treated at the scene for a minor facial injury.

The area was closed for several hours while police investigated the crash and while crews worked to repair downed power lines.

There was no indication of how many people were affected by the outage.