Squirrel Blamed for Outage, Traffic Jam

[Champ]

VANCOUVER, Wash. - A hungry squirrel has been blamed for a power outage that snarled rush-hour traffic in this city north of Portland, Ore.

Electricity was cut for about an hour Wednesday morning to about 5,145 residential and business customers after the rodent caused a short circuit at a substation.


The outage also affected traffic lights, including one busy intersection, where westbound traffic was backed up for about a mile, Washington State Patrol Trooper Garvin March said.


A substation worker found the remains of a squirrel with a walnut lying nearby, Clark Public Utilities spokesman Mick Shutt said.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=816&ncid=816&e=1&u=/ap/20040826/ap_on_fe_st/squirrel_outage

[johnnie]

1. Poor squirrel n/t

[slutticus]

2. Well...

...at least he held on to that walnut until the bitter end.

It reminds me of that saber-tooth squirrel at the beginning of "ICE AGE".

[mark11727]

3. The same thing happened two years ago in my neighborhood...

...about six in the morning there was a horrific POW, and the power was out for several hours.

Eventually the power company explained that a squirrel had gotten into one of the insulators, shorted himself, and tripped whatever trips in these circumstances.

Not a pretty sight, either.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

4. This says it all...

http://www.scarysquirrel.org/special/movies/geico/squirrels.wmv