Squirrels report day eagerly anticipated
Posted: Sunday, February 18, 2007
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) -- Among special days for rodents, you got your Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney, Pa., and your squirrel report day in Lincoln, Neb.
In Punxsutawney, officials look forward to what Punxsutawney Phil says the weather will be.
In Lincoln, officials look backward at what damage the squirrels have wrought.
The yearly squirrel report actually is an administrative report on how many outages the city-owned Lincoln Electric System has experienced in the past year and what caused them.
For some members of the system's administrative board, the yearly report is an amusing ritual.
"It's the squirrel report," board member Dawn Rockey exclaimed Friday as Neil Engelman, vice president of operations, started his recitation.
Board member Kathy Campbell said the squirrel report was one of her favorite administrative tomes, too.
Engelman soon shared the news:
Squirrels caused about 28 percent of the outages -- 97 -- more than twice that of any other source last year. Coming in second was underground cable failures, 47, followed by falling tree limbs at 38 and lightning at 37.
The total for the year: 348, averaging 18.3 minutes.
The squirrel is public enemy No. 1 for power companies elsewhere, too.
In Austin, Texas, for example, Austin Energy says squirrels cause about 20 percent of its outages -- upward of 700 a year.
Spokesman Ed Clark said Saturday that the utility spends around $100,000 a year to combat squirrel outages.
In Topeka, Kan., a curious squirrel got a shock that left the Kansas Statehouse and other downtown buildings in the dark for about a half hour in 2005.
Topeka utility officials said the squirrel got into a substation and apparently touched different parts of a circuit, causing an overload.
In Lincoln, officials haven't had much success with their efforts to cut squirrel-caused outages.
Spokesman Russ Reno said special squirrel guards have been installed on hot lines into transformers, but the guards haven't worked all that well.
He's even heard that some squirrels store their nuts under the guards.
In Punxsutawney, officials look forward to what Punxsutawney Phil says the weather will be.
In Lincoln, officials look backward at what damage the squirrels have wrought.
The yearly squirrel report actually is an administrative report on how many outages the city-owned Lincoln Electric System has experienced in the past year and what caused them.
For some members of the system's administrative board, the yearly report is an amusing ritual.
"It's the squirrel report," board member Dawn Rockey exclaimed Friday as Neil Engelman, vice president of operations, started his recitation.
Board member Kathy Campbell said the squirrel report was one of her favorite administrative tomes, too.
Engelman soon shared the news:
Squirrels caused about 28 percent of the outages -- 97 -- more than twice that of any other source last year. Coming in second was underground cable failures, 47, followed by falling tree limbs at 38 and lightning at 37.
The total for the year: 348, averaging 18.3 minutes.
The squirrel is public enemy No. 1 for power companies elsewhere, too.
In Austin, Texas, for example, Austin Energy says squirrels cause about 20 percent of its outages -- upward of 700 a year.
Spokesman Ed Clark said Saturday that the utility spends around $100,000 a year to combat squirrel outages.
In Topeka, Kan., a curious squirrel got a shock that left the Kansas Statehouse and other downtown buildings in the dark for about a half hour in 2005.
Topeka utility officials said the squirrel got into a substation and apparently touched different parts of a circuit, causing an overload.
In Lincoln, officials haven't had much success with their efforts to cut squirrel-caused outages.
Spokesman Russ Reno said special squirrel guards have been installed on hot lines into transformers, but the guards haven't worked all that well.
He's even heard that some squirrels store their nuts under the guards.
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