Squirrel causes power outage

More than 8,000 Xcel Energy customers on the West Bank campus and in the Como neighborhood lost their power Tuesday evening.
The culprit? A squirrel.
The outage occurred at about 5 p.m. when a squirrel got into the power equipment, Xcel Energy spokesman Tom Hoen said. Power was out for one hour and 20 minutes.
“Customers got their power back at 6:35 p.m.” Hoen said. “The squirrel, however, did not make it.”
The outage did not have to do with “system upgrades” that were underway on 14th Street Southeast in Dinkytown, according to Xcel Energy.