Thousands of North Carolina residents found themselves without power thanks to the work of a wily snake. A spokesperson for Duke Energy, which provides power to North and South Carolina as well as parts of Florida, spoke to CBS17 and WBTV about the wild incident.
The outage began around 11 p.m. on Monday, May 5, when the snake in question slithered into an electrical substation. Somehow, the animal interacted with equipment in a way which shorted out power for roughly 10,000 customers in Durham, Forsyth, and Gaston. Immanuel Holland told CBS17 that he “woke up in the pitch dark” with no idea of what had transpired. A spokesperson told WBTV that officials are still investigating how the serpent made its way into the substation, as the area is equipped with protective fencing to deter animals.
“We have been making grid improvements across our system to increase physical and cyber protections around essential equipment,” the spokesperson explained. “These improvements include physical protections to keep squirrels, snakes, and other animals out of substations and other equipment, and to keep power reliable for the communities we serve.”…