Squirrel caused 5,000 customers to lose power in North Carolina, co-op says

EMERALD ISLE, N.C. (WBTV) — A wayward squirrel caused thousands of people to lose power at the North Carolina coast over the weekend.

The outage was triggered around 7:45 a.m. on Saturday, June 7 at Emerald Isle.

Within an hour and a half of power crews responding, Carteret-Craven Electric Co-op said power had been restored to all 5,000 customers affected by the outage.

The co-op said in a Facebook post that the substation had squirrel guards but the rodent was still able to weasel its way in and “found a way to turn the power out to half of [Emerald Isle].” The company also said the incident left the squirrel “crispy.”

For future outages, Carteret-Craven Electric Co-op customers can check for updates here.

Last month, a snake caused an outage that left 10,000 people in the dark elsewhere in North Carolina.

According to The Nature Conservancy, an estimated 13 million Americans lose power each year due to animal-caused outages.

Emerald Isle is toward the bottom of North Carolina’s Crystal Coast region in Carteret County.

Also Read: Snake causes power outage affecting 10K Duke Energy customers in North Carolina

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