Nearly 1,800 customers in downtown Edmonds were left without power late Wednesday afternoon after a squirrel got into electrical equipment, Snohomish County PUD said.

The outage occurred at 4:20 p.m. and power was expected to return by around 6:15 p.m., PUD spokesperson Kellie Stickney said

According to this Nature Conservancy article, wildlife comes in second only to stormy weather as the major cause of power failures. And squirrels are by far the worst offenders. In fact, some industry estimates say squirrels cause almost half of all power outages from wildife.

The article goes on to state:

Power outages caused by squirrels (which warrants its own acronym in the industry, POCBS) are sufficiently significant that the American Public Power Association, which speaks for community-owned utilities, has a “Squirrel Index.” The index analyzes depredations by squirrels and other animals. Data on attacks on power by squirrels and other creatures also are compiled on another site, CyberSquirrel1. It began as satire but is now viewed as an asset for the global power industry.