
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, June 15, 1995                   TAG: 9506150027
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: F.J. GALLAGHER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

SQUIRREL KNOCKS OUT TRAFFIC LIGHTS, POWER

A rambunctious rodent disabled traffic signals along Williamson Road during the height of rush hour Wednesday morning and deprived thousands of Roanoke residents of electricity.

"It's not uncommon; sometimes snakes or birds get in there," Appalachian Power Co. spokesman Terry McMahan said. "In this case, it was a squirrel that got on our equipment and bridged between an energized surface and a grounded surface, causing an outage."

The outage at the Lukens Street power station, located near Lucy Addison Aerospace Magnet Middle School, occurred at 7:59 a.m. It affected nearly 4,400 Apco customers and traffic lights in the Round Hill and Gainsboro Road areas in addition to the Williamson Road corridor, McMahan said. Workers restored power at 8:36 a.m.

"At this point, I'm not aware of any damage" resulting from the incident, McMahan said, adding that the squirrel received a lethal dose of voltage.

The Roanoke Police Department deployed officers at major intersections to direct traffic in the affected area, Lt. Ramey Bower said, and also responded to a number of burglar alarms that went off when power was restored.

No traffic accidents were reported during the blackout, Bower said.

"It was a routine response to something like that," he said. "Fortunately, [the power] wasn't off too long."

by CNB