Close to 5,000 South Salt Lake residents were plunged into darkness after a power outage disrupted their daily life on Sunday. According to ABC4, a wildlife intrusion into an electrical transformer was the catalyst for the widespread blackout, leaving traffic lights along the bustling State Street, including at the critical intersection of 2100 South State Street, non-operational.
Rocky Mountain Power, the utility company handling the situation, reported that by 1 p.m. that day, just under 4,900 customers had been affected. The power outage spanned ZIP codes 94115 and 84106, signaling a significant disturbance across the urban space, as detailed by KUTV. Motorists were advised by Salt Lake City Police to maneuver through darkened intersections with caution, treating them as four-way stops.
The cause of this unexpected outage? A squirrel, finding its way into the machinery of urbanity, and imprinting its mark by triggering an unexpected pause in the city's electric hum. As FOX13 reports, the small creature was the inadvertent architect behind the power loss impacting over 4,600 customers the previous Saturday afternoon.
