Squirrel Revenge

Squirrel triggers Auburn outage

Doused lights don't halt work for area businesses

By: Penne Usher, Journal Staff Writer

Saturday, November 3, 2007

A Friday power outage in the Auburn area Friday morning has traffic at a near standstill on Highway 49 and Palm Avenue. Photo by ben furtado/Auburn Journal
A major power outage in Auburn Friday morning brought many businesses to a standstill, including the Journal.

"We sat down and we ate until it came back on," said Jodie Luckett, owner of Cheryl's Clothes Closet on Palm Avenue. "We had a calculator and were still able to let people shop."

Power was cut to 6,752 Auburn-area customers at 8:45 a.m. Friday and restored by 11 a.m., said Jennifer Ramp, spokeswoman for PG&E.

"We had a squirrel that got into our Placer substation (on Blocker Drive) and caused the outage," Ramp said.

Luckett said she planned to take the dark moments as an opportunity to catch up on other business.

"I couldn't go on eBay and couldn't go to the post office, they were closed too," she said. "We are too reliant on electricity."

Among the 6,000-plus customers affected by the power outage was Auburn's main post office on Nevada Street.

"All our terminals were non-operational," said Alan Campbell, a post office supervisor. "Automation is a good thing, but everything runs on electricity."

He said workers were able to sort mail by hand for the 43 routes the office covers.

"We wanted to reduce the amount of office time so our carriers would have more delivery time." Campbell said.

The Journal's Downtown newspaper offices were darkened as well.

"Whether it's rain, snow, sleet, hail or when a squirrel gets fried in the PG&E substation and causes a power outage, we will still get the newspaper out," said Deric Rothe, editor and general manager of the Journal. "It's just easier to run the presses during a snowstorm than it is to run them without electricity."

The Journal's Penne Usher can be reached at penneu@goldcountrymedia.com or post a comment on auburnjournal.com.