Squirrel causes power outage in Monett

A power outage impacting the center of Monett started the business day on May 13 in Monett. 

The substation at Seventh Street, south of Broadway, had an equipment failure at approximately 7:30 a.m., triggering a widespread power outage. 

Based on previous preparation for such an incident, electric crews began rerouting power through other substations in the city. By 8 a.m., approximately 200 customers still had power losses. 

“A squirrel got in the substation and caused some equipment damage on Liberty's high voltage part of the sub which took us down, reported Skip Schaller, Monett utilities superintendent. “We have switching plans in place for these kind of incidents and our crews switched all the circuits to other subs in town and had power restored in less than an hour. Liberty finished their repairs around 2:30 p.m. and our crews switched power back to the Seventh Street sub.

“We have squirrel guards around the substation,” Schaller added, based on previous similar incidents at that location. “Sometimes squirrels get in. Right now, squirrels are very active and have caused several local outages over the last few weeks. Fortunately, this one happened during work hours and our crews could deploy immediately.”