SEATTLE -- A raccoon caused a massive power outage for 38,000 customers in parts of Seattle early Wednesday morning.
Seattle City Light believes a raccoon wandered into the a substation at 8th Avenue NW and Leary Way and somehow de-energized the system. Miraculously, the raccoon survived whatever mischief ensued within the substation, but was not captured.
Electricity is back on for about 38,000 customers in Seattle's Ballard, Fremont and Wallingford neighborhoods after the widespread outage, which was caused after a string of feeder lines failed.
After nearly two hours in the dark crews were able to restore power to all affected customers by 5 a.m.
Jeff Pierce snapped photos of the raccoon after he saw crews at the substation trying to corral the animal.
"I heard a loud explosion and just came here to see what happened," he said. "You wouldn't think such a small raccoon could cause so much trouble."
