A Squirrel Knocked Out Power for 1,753 Kennewick Customers

At 5:27 AM this morning, nearly 1,800 customers in west Kennewick woke up to no power, and the cause might surprise you.

Benton PUD crews were called in before most people's alarms went off, spent the next hour and a half patrolling lines trying to track down the cause, and by 7 AM had power restored to everyone affected.

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The cause was not a transformer failure. Not a car hitting a utility pole. Not a windstorm or equipment malfunction. A single squirrel got into a city riser and took out power for the entire Gage Boulevard and Steptoe Street area of west Kennewick before sunrise on a Tuesday morning.

How the Morning Search for The Kennewick Outage Unfolded

Benton PUD posted the first alert at 5:40 AM, confirming a short circuit on distribution power lines affecting 1,753 customers in west Kennewick. When it was first reported, the cause was unknown, and crews were called in to find the source. By 6 AM, crews were patrolling the line, and by 6:30 AM, the search continued with no confirmed visible cause yet.

Then, around 7 AM, power was restored, and the cause was confirmed. They found the squirrel in a city riser.

Nature Versus the Power Grid, Nature Wins Again

This issue is far more common than most people realize. Squirrels, birds, and other wildlife are responsible for lots of power outages across the country every year. A squirrel contacting energized equipment in a utility riser creates an instant short circuit that can trip breakers and take down entire distribution circuits in seconds.

In case you were wondering, the squirrel did not survive the encounter.