The chance of squirrels knocking out critical electrical infrastructure is so common that it has its own Wikipedia page. True story.
One of the rodents that like to run across powerlines on Thursday morning saw its life flash before its eyes when it fried itself at Kerrville Public Utility Board’s Stadium Substation — knocking out a transformer. In turn, the roasted rodent knocked the power out to more than 3,700 customers across Kerrville and Kerr County for about an hour. The incident happened at about 10:05 a.m.
KPUB’s Allison Bueche said crews restored power, but not before it caused some traffic-related trouble, requiring Kerrville Police Department officers to direct traffic to help mitigate four-way-stop chaos.
This isn’t the first squirrel-related catastrophe; a rodent knocked power out downtown about two years ago near the Kerrville police station. Bueche added a Ringtail cat and a buzzard, which have also helped disrupt power.
Interestingly, the American Public Power Association, which recently handed KPUB a safety award, said that squirrels are most likely to knock out power in May-June and again in October-November.
