The Unusual Culprit Behind A Brief Minnesota Power Outage

A Minnesota town was briefly without power on Monday. The power outage was caused by an unusual circumstance in which an animal was to blame, and no, it wasn't a squirrel. Thankfully, the outage near Outing didn't last long, but I've got questions about how they are going to prevent it from happening again.

Unusual Culprit Causes Power Outage

The area around Outing in Cass County was briefly without power on Monday thanks to an animal culprit. A beaver took it upon itself to chew through a power pole, causing it to sag enough that it had to be replaced before it fell.

According to Crow Wing Power, the outage was expected to be brief as the pole was replaced.

You can see in the post above that the beaver got more than halfway into the pole, and if there weren't wires running to the pole, it probably would have fallen into the marsh where it stood.

Will It Happen Again?

It's unclear from the social media post if the beaver was 'relocated', but Minnesota law allows "landowners or their authorized agents to kill or trap beavers causing property damage without a license", provided certain conditions are met. If the nuisance beaver was allowed to stay, chances are Crow Wing Power will be back to replace another pole.

Get our free mobile app

How Common Are Beaver-Related Power Outages?

Beaver-related power outages appear to be uncommon in Minnesota, though they have happened before. I was only able to find one other instance that was reported, and that was in 2016. Lake Country Power reported that beavers had damaged utility poles only a handful of times over the previous decade.

I did reach out to Crow Wing Power on social media to see if they have had past beaver-related power pole issues and how they have dealt with them previously.

READ MORE FROM PAUL SHEA