Squirrel Blamed for Teaneck-Area Power Outage [UPDATE]
About 5,000 customers lost power in three towns, utility company says.
PSEG's recent electricity repairs were no match for a wayward squirrel Monday morning.
The animal "came in contact" with two circuits, knocking out service to about 5,000 customers in Teaneck, Bogota and Ridgefield Park, a company spokeswoman said.
Crews had tied the two circuits together in a temporary fix after another utility failure Sunday, according to PSEG's Annette Hicks.
"Our crews are making repairs and the system should be back to normal within an hour," the spokeswoman said shortly before 11 a.m.
In Teaneck, up to 2,000 customers lost service but were mostly restored by 9 a.m., according to PSEG's outage map. The company reported up to 5,000 without service in Ridgefield Park.
The original problem, reported at the company's Ridgefield substation, caused outages Sunday morning impacting more than 5,000 customers from Teaneck to Dumont.
Follow Patch on Twitter, Facebook and click to sign up for Breaking News Alerts. News tip? Story idea? E-mail teaneck@patch.com
Art Vatsky
11:37 am on Monday, January 14, 2013
Well, that squirrel is toast. Maybe the genset companies are training the squirrels?
Dee Are
12:53 pm on Monday, January 14, 2013
is the photo for the article a file picture of the particular squirrel? did he have a record of doing this? Is there a will? What about his family -- will they be filing suit against the town or can they be named in civil actions resulting from the outage? And do they need any sort of therapy? Squirrel electrocutions hurt more than just the squirrel who is electrocuted.
Teaneck_Resident
1:47 pm on Monday, January 14, 2013
I hear they are tasty if cooked correctly. This one...not so much just all carbon.
carol weinstein karlin
1:54 pm on Monday, January 14, 2013
squirrel vs. PSE&G...who would have thought...
Teaneck_Resident
2:46 pm on Monday, January 14, 2013
The same thing happend to the college I attended. All sorts of backup systems and a little critter chewed the power line and poof...
shimon baum
1:58 pm on Monday, January 14, 2013
Is there anything in this town that doesn't cause power outages?
TeaneckUSEDtoBeGood
10:29 am on Tuesday, January 15, 2013
~Whew~ Good thing that Township Manager Wm. Broughton wasn't affected - OH, wait. He lives over an hour away in South Jersey. Wonder if he drove his taxpayer funded car up on the weekend to investigate?