While severe weather causes most outages, if it’s nice out and your electricity goes off, it could be caused by a squirrel. We know to play it safe around electricity, but squirrels don’t. They scamper and chew around transformers, substations and utility poles where they can disrupt high-voltage equipment.
But it’s not just squirrels. Snakes, birds and other critters can find their way into dangerous places. There’s no official recordkeeping of wildlife-caused power outages, but estimates run as high as 20 percent.
Source: NRECA
Photo courtesy of Megan Zopf
