Squirrels Knock Out Power to Two Cities
Squirrels are cute but pesky little creatures whose natural curiousity often tends to get them in trouble. I remember more than a few times as a kid seeing squirrels stranded on electrical wires crying because they had been shocked. You’d think they’d learn after awhile and just avoid the wires by jumping from tree to tree
Well, two little rodents were just a bit too curious yesterday when, in two separate incidents, they broke into two transformers, got fried, and knocked out power to hundreds of customers in Ashland, Wisconcin and Ironwood, Michigan. While power was out for only an hour or so, the tree-hopping rats will not be making the rounds again.
So sad…
It was an unlucky day for two squirrels and hundreds of Midwestern power customers.
Brian Elwood, a spokesman for Xcel Energy, said a squirrel came in contact with an overhead transformer and knocked out service to 177 customers Monday. Power was fully restored in just under an hour, and repair crews found the remains of the "unfortunate squirrel," he said.
By coincidence, another squirrel got into a substation 40 miles away in Ironwood, Mich., Monday morning and caused a temporary outage that affected about 1,400 customers in Ironwood and two nearby communities, Elwood said.
The utility takes many preventive steps to keep the curious animals away from lines, he said, but they are one of the leading causes of outages, trailing only severe weather.
"We kind of liken it to anyone who’s had a bird feeder and tried to keep the squirrels out," he said. "They find a way."
Rodney Johnson was stuck on an elevator at the city’s Enterprise Center, where he works, when the power went out.
"For a couple of minutes there, I wasn’t sure if I’d make it to Thanksgiving," said Johnson, who said he is somewhat claustrophobic. "They kept talking to me while they were trying to open it up, though, so that helped."
Once a firefighter opened the door, Johnson wasted no time in getting out.
"I’m surprised I didn’t knock him down," he said.
source Tags: dumb news, squirrels, power outage
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POSTED IN: Dumb Animals, Dumb Pictures, Just Weird, RIP
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