A Friday morning power outage impacting Teaneck and other nearby towns is being blamed on an “animal contact,” according to a Public Service Electric & Gas spokeswoman.
A squirrel came in contact with live wires on Pennington Road in town, causing sections of Teaneck, Leonia and Bogota to lose power, utility spokeswoman Deann Muzikar said in an email.
Up to 5,000 customers were without power at around 10 a.m., according to the PSE&G outage map. That number has since dropped to up to 500 in Teaneck and none in Leonia or Bogota.
Traffic lights at busy intersections, including Queen Anne Road and Degraw Avenue, were temporarily knocked out.
Friday’s incident wasn’t the first time a wayward squirrel has put area utility customers in the dark. A squirrel caused a mobile transformer to fail in New Milford on Thursday.
That incident knocked power out to more than 10,000 customers in Bergen County, NorthJersey.com reported. All customers from that outage have since been restored.
PSE&G is asking customers to conserve power as storm-related repairs continue. Outages are possible as the utility moves customers to different circuits, officials said.
Fewer than 2,500 customers were without power statewide, with service planned to be restored Friday night, PSE&G said in a statement.
“There will be scattered customers in flood areas whose restoration will be later as it is dependent on the recession of flood waters and safety inspections by municipal authorities,” the statement said.
