Squirrel knocks out power to 10,000 customers in Virginia

Sept. 9 (UPI) -- Utility officials in Virginia said 10,000 customers, including at least two schools, were without power for over an hour when a squirrel came into contact with substation equipment.

Dominion Energy spokeswoman Bonita Billingsley Harris said in a Twitter post that the power outage began about 8:45 a.m. Wednesday when a squirrel entered a substation in Virginia Beach.

"The squirrel got between a circuit breaker and a transformer causing a power surge that made the transformer fail," Harris told WVEC-TV.

The surge caused about 10,000 customers to lose power. Kempsville High School and Fairfield Elementary School were among the customers without electricity.

Harris said power was restored to all customers just over an hour after the outage began.