It's all the fault of a squirrel, again.

Many are underground here as well, but we still have transformer boxes/stations in some places, and the squirrels evidently love to chew on the wires.. Ugh.

@MarieCoyle - My brother rented a closed garage in Milan, near the apartment of my mother. It had a normal door, but he insisted to install an electric door. If you know how many times we had to call an electrician because our car was stuck inside!

@LadyDuck Oh, my. That would have been very frustrating.

It’s all good. When you rent, you have to go with what they have, in this case, a garage door opener.

@MarieCoyle Oh, Marie. That’s just intolerable.

@AmbiePam It was horrible. I had fans but they just blew hot air around, no relief at all at those temperatures. I spent a few nights with a friend, she and her husband found out my air was broken and invited me to stay there, I finally broke down and went to stay the night for a few nights, just so I could sleep!

@MarieCoyle Glad to hear things are back to normal, Marie!

I am glad it’s back on, too. Thank you!

@annierose Normal? Haha never, not around here!

@MarieCoyle Getting electrocuted? I’m guessing it not the same squirrel every year then. Damn nuisance though.

@MarieCoyle Does the transformer lend itself to Squirrel attack? I mean, is it a poor design? I’ve never heard that happen here and we have plenty of transformers and squirrels.

Squirrels often destroy things here. It's just one of their tricks, I guess.

@MarieCoyle One of the perks of being in town is that I no longer have to worry about a well when the electricity goes out. I remember too well wanting electricity to return so that we could get water flowing from the taps again.

@sallypup I remember those days. I am glad not to have a well anymore.

We are all lost without electricity. I have candles and an emergency radio, but...it's not the same

@MarieCoyle Even mice are known to do that . I remember the whole city was without electroicity as one mouse had snapped the wires on top of the pillar.

@allknowing Rodents can do a lot of damage, for sure. One mouse...killed the power in a city. Oh, my.

One of my friends had a power outage in her neighborhood. Hers is all underground with the exception of one transformer not far from her house. The whole neighborhood had no power one night--and at first, the workers could not find any reason why. Finally, in remote corner of the transformer behind some wires, they found a huge family of field mice. Evidently one of them chewed on a wire, they tunneled under the walls of the transformer and got busy. They were out of power for several days, as the workers didn't see the mouse family right away.

@MarieCoyle Yes, it is. Although it's quite common around here especially durring hurricane season. Especially when it comes to who's responsible for tree removal. I remember a couple years ago, George and I spent a week motel hopping because no one could figure out who should remove damaged trees from power lines.

Oh wow, a week!! That’s a long time to go without power.

@kaylachan What a snarl that must have been. Everyone waiting for someone else to do the tree removal, when it has to be done, it has to be done...so frustrating.

I know I am lost without it as well!

It's not really convenient to release the little rope thingy to operate the door manually, because...the car is parked in the way, and it's above the car! Yes, it could be. If you can't get out, you're stuck!

@Hannihar This does happen on occasion, animals getting too close to equipment for safety. It's almost always a squirrel.

@MarieCoyle It's the best when it's icy cold in the winter and we can still have heat.

I had a generator where I used to live. But renters are not allowed to have them here.

@LindaOHio I counted on mine during bad storms if the power went down, as it kept the basement sump pump running--without power, and with really big rains, if the sump pump didn't run, the basement flooded.

It was so good that no one was hurt during that. Scary stuff!

Well, not ever having a power outage ever again, is just not realistic. We get wild winds and storms, winter ice storms, and we have the squirrels to fill in the blanks and do their thing with the electric service. It's just part of life--often annoying, but it happens. When you think about it, the animals were all here, or rather where we are, way before we were. It's their place first, then ours. The power companies here all strive to give us top service, so I try not to worry about it.

@LovesEverybody Two summers ago, my area got hit with a terrible storm and many towns for miles around were without power. Mine was out for several days. It was hard, it was hot and uncomfortable. I stayed with a family member who wasn't close enough to be affected, then I drove home once a day to check on things and such. It wasn't easy--but I was one of the lucky ones, I still had a home and a car and they were not damaged. One of my friends a few miles away from me had so much damage, they had no power for 10 days! If I had to pick one to fear, it would be losing my home rather than losing power for awhile!

@MarieCoyle I prefer to wish never to have one again I have such a fear of them. I wish I could feel the same way as you about it, but I just don't see it happening. Not even with my new medicine

When I lived ''out in the sticks'' for several years, there was a big metal box thing across the road from me, next to a cornfield. Every year was the same thing. Field mice wanted to get warm in the winter, so they would dig or basically find any way to get in that thing to escape the winter. Then they would chew the wires, and cut off the power for us.

Yes, they certainly do here. But they usually are guilty!

She was, too!

That's how they end up on the transformers, usually via a power line. Then they are squirrel-toast. Thank you, it's all fine now.

No, it was dry and sunny. No rain at all. Here is an excerpt from the link I posted in a comment, it explains it better. But yes, it is extremely common. You hear a low, dull boom!! And you have no power. '' Unitil, a utility company serving over 107,000 in the northeast U.S., says squirrels cause an average of 8.5% of its outages each year. Unitil says since the animals use power lines for travel, it’s easy for them to inadvertently cause electrical trouble.'' “When a squirrel climbs onto an electrical transformer, it may cross the bare wire that leads from the high-voltage line to the transformer,” Unitil said in a May blog. “If it were to simultaneously touch this wire and a part of the transformer with sufficient electrical ground, an electrical short can cause both a power outage and the electrocution of the animal.'' Fox 59 news.

That’s true, I have all electric everything here.