Squirrel causes large blackout in downtown Columbia, officials say
A large section of downtown Columbia was without power Monday morning because of a squirrel.
An outage spread along Main Street, in the area near the intersections with Gervais, Lady, Hampton, and Taylor streets, Dominion Energy officials said on Twitter.
A second outage was reported after a dump truck hit some wires in the area near Owens Field, Dominion spokesman Matt Long told The State.
As of 11:45 a.m., about 1,800 customers reported being blacked out, according to an outage map on Dominion’s website.
Traffic lights were not working at Assembly Street and Rosewood Drive because of a transformer issue, according to the Columbia Police Department.
The initial power outage was caused by a squirrel that had damaged equipment, according to the tweet. The squirrel damaged a protective device but did not harm the transformer, Long said.
The animal was killed when it damaged the equipment, according to Long.
While power has been restored in downtown Columbia, crews were on the scene making repairs in the area of the second outage, Long said.
Long said he was hopeful power would be fully restored by 3 p.m.
In addition to the outages in Richland County, blackouts were also reported in Lexington County, where dozens of customers reported power loss, according to Dominion.
This is a developing story, check back for updates.
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This story was originally published November 16, 2020 at 11:50 AM.
