Mobile power equipment at Cinergy's Guilford Street substation, site of Sunday night's outage. / Photo by Andrew Hancock
Posted on 10/27/2004 3:15:14 AM PDT by asgardshill
Mobile power equipment at Cinergy's Guilford Street substation, site of Sunday night's outage. / Photo by Andrew Hancock
If your microwave quit with the bag of popcorn half-inflated Sunday evening, it didn't matter anyway -- the cable was out, too.
And you can blame the cat.
The feline, of the dark tiger variety, wandered into the Cinergy substation north of town, darkening many city homes and most city TV sets. And then -- after an unhealthy jolt of electricity had coursed through its body -- the cat wandered away.
"It must have had one more life," said Animal Control Officer Sheryl Arnold.
The cat's curiosity apparently led it into the substation near Johnson Junction on Guilford Street around 7 o'clock Sunday evening. At 7:05, the north end of the city was plunged into darkness.
"He touched two of the wrong wires at the same time, I'm guessing," said Arnold.
The cat's adventure left 2,516 Cinergy customers in Huntington without power. One of those customers was Comcast Cable, and when Comcast's power was interrupted, television screens all over Huntington went dark.
The power went out at 7:05 p.m. and was restored at 8:36 p.m., said Rob Norris of Cinergy's corporate office in Plainfield.
Arnold was called to the substation when a scorched cat was spotted at the scene.
"I came very close to catching the little stinker," Arnold said. "But everything was black up there, even the cat. It took off running lickety-split."
The cat ran into a field behind the substation.
"He seemed to be OK, but it seemed to have a bald butt," she said. "We could smell cooking fur."
Arnold planned to return today to look again for the cat, and she's asking area residents to be on the lookout for a medium-sized dark feline with a hairless rear end. If anyone does spot the animal, she asks that they call the Huntington County Humane Shelter at 356-0355 during its business hours, noon to 6 p.m. Outside of shelter business hours, they should call city police at 356-7110 so Arnold can be paged.
Norris was surprised to learn that the cat survived. He said the cat had wandered into a 12-kilovolt temporary regulator, one of the devices used to reduce the voltage of the electricity being brought into town.
While the substation is fenced in, the equipment inside the fence is not enclosed.
"That's why we tell people to stay out," he said. "You don't want to touch two of some things at the same time."
It's not unusual for animals, usually squirrels, to short out a substation, Norris said, but it's also not that common -- happening maybe once or twice a month in Cinergy's 22,000-square-mile service territory.
For your ping lists ... poor burned-butt beast.
That was just a Viking Kitty recharging.....getting ready for upcoming election ZOTS!!
NeverGore :^)
Even Viking Kitties need to remember safe charging techniques. She's going to be hard-pressed to explain to her Zotmaster how half her butt fur got roasted off :)
OK, who got greedy?
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Kitty Ping List alert!
[Freepmail me to get on or off the Kitty Ping List.]
Just Daaaaaaaang
Robert Duvall, Apocolypse Now
Bald cat butt *ping* ;-)
haha! Funny. What a story!Calling Viking Kitties to a kitty story.
Yeah, I can see that being broadcast over the police frequencies!
You blaming me for this? GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!
Hehe Viking Kitty Zot recharge
Please remember to make sure you're properly grounded when you're charging up for one of those megazots, OK, dude?
Let's roll, and let's be careful out there!
Actually, that was a light in the loafers DU troll doing what it does best, imitating a pussy.
You all gotta stop!! I'm about to laugh myself into tears!!
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