Squirrel dies at California power station, causes power outage for more than 40,000

Rascally rodent caused disruptions to public transportation around Berkeley

A squirrel caused a major power outage in northern California when the rodent scampered into a power substation in the town of El Cerrito and cut power to about 45,000 people. The squirrel did not survive.

People in the cities of Berkeley, Oakland, Albany, El Cerrito, Kensington, Richmond and San Pablo lost power for about two and a half hours on Monday night, according to Berkeleyside.

The outage caused the BART public transportation system to skip Berkeley altogether until power was restored. There also were reports of people briefly getting stuck in elevators. But some Californians used the outage as an excuse to take to the great outdoors.

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