Wednesday morning, a squirrel caused enough damage to leave 315 residents and businesses in the downtown area without power. The outage began at roughly 10:55 a.m., and according to the Owensboro Municipal Utilities outage map, the crew remedied it within 30 minutes.
The outage spanned east to west from Castlen Street to Allen Street and north to south from Second Street to as far north as West Seventh Street.
Ironically, a squirrel caused an outage just a few days after the installation, reassuring OMU that the new text service was working. The service also allows customers to learn about the current power status and report outages in their neighborhood, aiding OMU in making timely responses to the area.
Click here to opt into the service.
Last October, OMU reported over 15 power outages, 9 of which were caused by squirrels, birds, and other animals interfering with lines or damaging equipment. According to T&D World, a national utility publication, animal-related outages caused between $15 million and $18 million in damages and lost yearly revenue.
OMU Communication and Public Relations Manager Sonya Dixon said the curious squirrel often causes damage just by filing its teeth down. This leads to plastics, metals, and other things being chewed on.
“We and the industry have tried everything to fix the problem. Everybody comes out with a new cage to put around the equipment, but those squirrels are culprits,” Dixon said.
