Weekend Whimsy: Squirrel in the Transformer!!

Last Saturday morning, I heard a loud popping sound, almost like a small explosion, outside my house.  The electricity went out and my immediate thought was "squirrel in the transformer!"

I grew up in a VERY small town in a very rural county in Florida.  Every so often, on an ordinary day, the power would go off with a popping, explosive sound and we would invariably know a squirrel had found its way into the transformer.    For all my life, no matter where I lived, from the Carolinas to New Jersey, if the power went off with a popping sound, I would say, "squirrel in the transformer!"

Now my more urban friends and neighbors thought this was the silliest thing, and I was assured that that could never happen.  Even when I moved back to that rural county, some friends laughed and told me the transformers were animal proofed!

Imagine my glee and sense of vindication last Saturday!!  After numerous calls to and from Florida Power and Light, checking all my breakers, and several hours of no power -- lo and behold, I got an AUTOMATED phone call --  "we have determined that the cause of your outage was a small animal in the transformer!!"  An AUTOMATED call -- clearly this happens often enough to have a canned reply from FPL!!!!

So, next time your power goes out with a popping explosion, and no other explanation -- consider that there could be a squirrel in your transformer!!!!