Power restored in Richmond after squirrel damages equipment

RICHMOND, Ky. (WKYT) - A squirrel is being blamed for a Sunday morning power outage impacting hundreds of customers in Richmond.

Hundreds Impacted

Kentucky Utilities says the animal got into power equipment on a pole near the Eastern Bypass around 7 a.m. Sunday. That contact caused an outage affecting 383 customers, according to the KU outage map.

Because trucks couldn’t reach the damaged area, crews had to climb the pole to work on repairs.

Crews worked on Brookview Drive to repair the equipment. Several restaurants on Eastern Bypass lost power, along with multiple traffic lights. The power was restored at around 11:15 a.m.

Church Services Postponed

The outage also affected a local church. First Baptist Church in Richmond postponed its morning services due to the outage.

“I live on our church’s parsonage where we do our college ministry stuff at Magnolia House. I lose power for a minute, then I get a phone call from one of our other pastors. He goes, hey, is there any power at the church? I’m like, I don’t know, we’ll find out. Then, come to learn about 710 this morning, power went out at the church,” said College and Youth Pastor Zac Salyer. “It’s just been one of those wild mornings you don’t necessarily expect.”

With power back on, services will resume at 6 p.m. tonight.

“It’s caused us to rearrange everything today all around it. So it’s been a chaotic morning, but still a good morning. Glad it’s not worse than what it is,” said Salyer.