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Adventurous raccoon cuts power

Posted by Geeky Swedes on May 6th, 2008

Updated: It was “lights out” for part of Ballard and Fremont last night. Approximately 150 11,000 Seattle City Light customers lost their power just before midnight after a raccoon “bridged the wrong gap” on transmission lines at the substation on 45th. Less than an hour later, power was restored causing alarm clocks to start blinking and possibly making some of you late for work. The raccoon, as you might imagine, did not survive. (Thank you Mindy for the tip and Peter for the update!)

Adds Kristen below: “This was the FIRST power outage I’ve experienced in Ballard in 16 years! When friends were without power for several days the last two winters I said (smugly), ‘The power NEVER goes out in Ballard! Not enough trees!’ We never anticipated the suicidal terrorist raccoon.”

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  • AkGru
    Poor lil' raccoon got kilt...

    http://thisisbenslist.blogspot.com/

    A raccoon wandering through a power substation in Ballard around midnight today caused an electrical short that left 11,000 customers without lights for nearly an hour — and spelled the end to the critter.

    When Seattle City Light workers arrived at the Canal Substation at 614 NW 45th St., "they could tell by the smell that an animal was involved," said Mike Eagan, spokesman. Apparently the raccoon "bridged the wrong gap" on the transmission lines, he said.

    http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews...
  • Peter
    The Times says it was a racoon, and that it was 11,000 customers. I can tell you that the outage extended down 9th all the way to The Dish.
  • Lindsarella
    HA! I thought my roommate was mad at me and was playing with the circuit box again! Poor Rocky.
  • Sharon
    thankfully we have a hungry cat that works as our alarm clock, otherwise i would've never made it to work on time.
  • And once again, we managed to keep the power on. I have no idea how in three years we have never had a power outage but I am not going to complain.
  • Kristen
    This was the FIRST power outage I've experienced in Ballard in 16 years! When friends were without power for several days the last two winters I said (smugly) "The power NEVER goes out in Ballard! Not enough trees!"

    We never anticipated the suicidal terrorist racoon faction.
  • Deepie
    I've been told that the power grid in Ballard is superior, and that's why we almost never lose power. Oldtimers from City Light talk about the power grid still at their reunions. I've lived in Ballard since 1991 and this is the first time we've lost power.
  • Mike
    I had never seen my neighborhood so dark before, it was awesome. But not as awesome as all my neighbors going outside using cellphones as flashlights wondering what the hell was going on. How dare that raccoon interrupt our midnight TV watching!
  • jules
    thanks for the explaination guys! i live at 19th & 80th streets and wondered what had happened. thank goodness for my cell phone alarm or i would have just kept on sleeping......

    btw, i have been seeing several raccoons during the day in my neighborhood over the last 2 weeks. hmmm..can't be good.
  • I thought I was living through an M. Night Shyamalan movie.
  • Eric
    I've lived in Ballard since 1994 and that was the first outage I've experienced, too. We're up on Sunset Hill and from the upstairs you could see Magnolia with full power but it was dark all the way from where we are on 70th down to the ship canal, as near as I could tell. That the weather was so still and temperate made it all the more eerie.
  • matt
    I work at Snoose Junction Pizzeria on Market St., just closing up shop last night when everything turned off, luckily i had a couple coworkers with me to take all the trash out to the alley. It was a creepy situation.
  • randi
    I work at a bar in fremont and we thought the person singing karaoke did it
  • cherie
    I've also lived in Ballard for about 13 years. Not ONCE has there been a power outage in ballard. Through the rain and snow and wind, we prevailed. But when a little tiny raccoon comes about, POOF. There goes the light!
  • Al
    Here's a pic I took from my balcony

  • Al
    Or maybe not...

    Just click on my name and it'll take you to them.
  • Carolyn
    Only our 2nd outage in 7+ years, the first was caused by a crow alighting on just the wrong wire/location on the power pole in front of our house, causing an outage to our house and our immediate neighbors.
    Yep, we have great reliability with our power here in wonderful Ballard, interrupted only it seems by critters' misfortunes.
  • trevista
    hmm--- i'm curious as to how the ballard power grid is set up [not meant sarcasticly]? i've lived across the street from swedish since '96 and have experienced outages more than a few times... the coolest one being 2 summers ago when all the power was out on the south side of Market street, but not the north... interestingly enough, this one on Monday didn't affect our building. :)
  • equiferus
    Huh. I had heard it was a cougar from Discovery Park and a wayward bear that got zapped in the power station and blew the fuse. :)

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