Squirrel Causes Power Loss

Electric power to 5,400 customers on the Island was interrupted for a few minutes on Monday morning, when an errant squirrel passed between wires in the NSTAR electrical system off the Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road in Tisbury. The outage at approximately 7:15 a.m. lasted for only a few minutes.

The contact by the rodent caused a protective device to shut off the system, said Mike Durand, a spokesman for the utility. The outage lasted for from three to 20 minutes. Power was brought back for 3,500 within six minutes, as electricity was rerouted around the equipment. Power was restored to the remaining customers when a crew reset the protective device.