NEED TO KNOW
- Nearly 10,000 people in North Carolina were left in the dark due to a power outage on Monday, May 5, caused by an unexpected source
- Duke Energy said the outage occurred after a snake came into contact with equipment at a substation
- The power company noted it was making “improvements,” including “physical protections to keep squirrels, snakes, and other animals out of substations and other equipment”
Thousands of North Carolina residents were left in the dark — all thanks to one snake.
A spokesperson for Duke Energy, which provides electric utilities to customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, and other states, told local outlets WBTV, WSOC-TV, and CBS17 that a power outage occurred on Monday, May 5, due to a black snake that came into contact with equipment at a substation.
The outage began around 11 p.m., when the serpent came in contact with equipment in a Durham, North Carolina, substation. According to the outlets, the outage lasted about three hours, and power was restored around 1:30 a.m.
Nearly 10,000 people were affected, including Immanuel Holland, who told CBS 17 that he had “woke up in the pitch dark” and noticed the light come “back on” at around 1:30 a.m.
The spokesperson noted to WBTV that the company was investigating how the snake got into the Durham substation, as the facility had protective fencing to prevent animals from getting in.
“We have been making grid improvements across our system to increase physical and cyber protections around essential equipment,” the spokesperson told the outlet.
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“These improvements include physical protections to keep squirrels, snakes, and other animals out of substations and other equipment, and to keep power reliable for the communities we serve,” they added.
After the news broke about the snake causing the outage, customer Jamichael Daye told CBS17 that he felt “sorry for the snake cause he was probably just trying to be warm.”
According to a map shared by CBS17, the outage affected Durham, Forsyth, and Gaston.
This isn’t the first time that a snake caused problems for a power company. In 2017, a snake got caught in a power line at a Duke Energy substation in South Carolina and caused a power outage for approximately 5,000 customers in Greenville County, according to United Press International (UPI).
At the time, Duke Energy noted that snakes are blamed for about 100 power outages yearly in the six states where the company operates, per UPI.
While snakes may be one cause of power outages, they aren’t the only animals that cause blackouts. U.S. animal-caused outages leave an estimated 13 million Americans without power annually, according to The Nature Conservancy.
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