KNOX COUNTY, Tenn. — Power is back on in the Karns area after a sudden outage on a beautiful Friday morning.
According to a representative for the Lenoir City Utilities Board, power went out around 11 a.m. and affected Karns Middle School and Karns High School. The outage affected at least 3,800 customers.
Power was restored around 11:30 a.m., and the LCUB representative said it appeared to have been knocked out by a squirrel.
East Tennessee critters have been responsible for several widespread outages in the past, and it rarely ends well for the animals.
"The problem is when an animal touches two lines and completes a circuit. The animal becomes the link between the lines and they almost never survive," KUB said in 2018. "Usually, it is birds, and squirrels are extremely common. Nationwide, squirrels are one of the top animal causes of power outages."
Companies like KUB said they have installed wildlife protection devices across many of its substations.
