Posted on 03/24/2020 11:11:53 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Power was quickly restored, the squirrel was not.
A squirrel interfering with electrical equipment temporarily knocked out power for 15 customers near the Governor’s Mansion, an Alaska Electric Light and Power spokesperson said.
“It happens. They sometimes get where they shouldn’t be,” said Debbie Driscoll, AEL&P’s vice president of consumer affairs in a phone interview. “He basically caused a problem with the fuses.”
AEL&P has closed its lobby, but is maintaining full operations as many other businesses close down to help slow the outbreak of COVID-19.
AEL&P will maintain full service through the outbreak, Discoll said.
“Our crews were on site very quickly, and found it not alive,” Driscoll said. “He-she-it actually caused a fair amount of damage.”
Driscoll says the issue of wildlife causing electrical failures is rare but not unheard of.
Squirrels are a larger issue down south, while birds are a larger problem in Juneau. This is the second incident this year, the first being caused by some manner of bird.
“Outages in general are not particularly common for us, we have a fairly reliable system,” Driscoll said.
About 25 years ago, a buddy and I were shooting the breeze on my back deck while our wives were off at a woman's Bible study. My deck had a great view of the rolling hills of the Palouse. It was twilight and lights were coming on in the neighborhood. As we talked, a squirrel came bounding down the power line like it had a thousand times before and both of us were casually following its progress. Right before our eyes, it did something different than normal because it looked like a bolt of lightning had struck it. As you described, a very bright flash. The lights throughout the neighborhood went dead. IIRC it took about hour to get power back up.
Kind of along the lines of how to give a cat a pill.
I worked on power lines and a transformer on a pole had a dead squirrel on it, Bait for buzzards. The power company had to keep sending crews out to reset the re-circuit breakers and look for the cause. Pole had a lot of dead buzzards under it.
Squirrels in the Northeast are responsible for fiber optic outages ALL THE TIME.
I had a call way back when exactly like this. The squirrel was dead. The dispatcher wanted to know if I was sure this was the cause of the power outage and I responded that his teeth were still smoking.
“Squirrel Temporarily Knocks Out Power”
use to happen all the time in my little burg ... when i was on city council i always asked the electric department during the annual budget review where was the line item for dead squirrels because they used that excuse for power outrages so often ...
look squirrel!!!
My neighborhood has short power outs about once a week. It is always a squirrel lighting up.
“A squirrel lighting up”
Those dirty, filthy, dope-smoking squirrels.
I love that one.
Hope no Chinese were around. They might have boiled it in bat broth, and who knows what we might have caught?
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