Squirrel Causes Huge Outage In Minneapolis, Leaves More Than 9000 Residents Without Power

In an unprecedented turn of events, a squirrel caused a major power outage in Minneapolis, Minnesota, leaving at least 9,500 customers in the region without electricity.

The outage, which lasted about an hour, took place Sunday morning. After a brief period, teams of energy provider Xcel were able to restore most of the power, Star Tribune said.

An Xcel spokesperson revealed a squirrel came in contact with some of the power equipment, which resulted in the outage.

"What happened is that a squirrel came into contact with some of our equipment that caused the outage," Xcel spokesperson Lacey Nygard told media after the power was restored. "It's never fun to be without power, so we want to make sure we get power restored as quickly as we can."

The condition of the squirrel after the incident was unknown.

According to the American Public Power Association, animals are among the main reasons behind power outages in the country. The problem is exacerbated around the areas where transmission lines are placed along with trees.

In an incident on Sept. 7, 10,000 Virginia Beach residents and two schools experienced power outages after a squirrel plunged between a circuit breaker and a transformer at a substation. The power outage lasted about 90 minutes, Wavy reported.

"The squirrel got between a circuit breaker and a transformer, causing a power surge that made the transformer fail," Dominion Energy spokesperson Bonita Billingsley Harris said.

The squirrel was not believed to have survived the electrocution, NewsNation reported.

Harris added the company has installed squirrel guards installed across all substations in order to contain animal interference and prevent them from damaging the electrical grid.

In a news release, New Orleans-based energy company Entergy stated about 15,000 animal-related power outages were reported in its Mississippi service area in the year 2020. The company further named squirrels as the "undisputed" top animal offender in the outages.

"They are King of the Power Outages, causing more than 15,000 of our animal-related outages last year with their cute scampering. Squirrels have taken down the power grid far more times than hackers," the company said.