GridRaccoon brings down grid, cutting power to 40,000 Seattle homes
A raccoon broke into a Seattle, Washington power substation on Wednesday morning and single-handedly (some suggest: single-pawedly) brought down the electrical grid, cutting power to more about 40,000 homes. The raccoon did not stay inside the substation for long, but still managed to cause thirteen separate system outages.
A raccoon broke into a Seattle, Washington power substation on Wednesday morning and single-handedly (some suggest: single-pawedly) brought down the electrical grid, cutting power to more about 40,000 homes.
The raccoon did not stay inside the substation for long, but still managed to cause thirteen separate system outages.
KIRO7 reportsthat Seattle Power and Light tweeted that “an animal entered one of our substations” in the early hours of the morning, causing a power outage that stretched across the suburbs from Golden Gardens Park to Queen Anne, north of the city.
Eyewitness Jeff Pierce told KIRO7 that he heard an explosion just before 3 a.m. and saw city workers carrying a raccoon who appeared dazed after being shocked inside the substation.
In another Tweeter message, Seattle Power and Light said that the raccoon died despite efforts to keep him alive.
Power was finally restored to all 40,000 by 8:00 a.m. Thursday morning.
