Monday update:
One squirrel was responsible for power outages in two College Station neighborhoods for 90 minutes Saturday morning.
College Station Utilities (CSU) says the squirrel made contact with a switch that ties two feeder lines together.
That affected 2,288 customers in the area of Copperfield and University and another 194 customers in the Spring Loop neighborhood.
CSU crews also investigated reports of contractors digging into an underground conductor, and birds causing the outages. While both turned out to be unfounded, the time taken to check resulted in taking more time to restore power.
The outages began Saturday morning at 8:46, and all power was restored at 10:17.
Original story:
About 9:30 Saturday morning, crews from College Station Utilities (CSU) responded to the first of two power outages.
The first affected about 1,300 customers in the Copperfield area and along portions of the freeway. The City of College Station’s Twitter page (@CityofCS) noted initially it was a “substation issue”, and later posted “our condolences to the squirrel who is now, hopefully, in a better place.”
CSU says the second outage, in the Spring Loop area, affected about 400 customers.