Raccoon causes thousands to lose power
A wayward raccoon is to blame for a power outage that left thousands of central Florida residents in the dark.
The Kissimmee Utility Authority reports that that the raccoon climbed onto a 13,200-volt piece of equipment at the utility's Airport Substation at 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, causing three primary feeder lines to fail.
The substation, one of 10 serving the Kissimmee area, is located off Hoagland Blvd., just south of the Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway.
The outage left 5,194 people without power for nearly an hour. Utility crews restored one feeder at 12:47 a.m., one at 12:48 a.m. and one at 12:53 a.m.
The utility is the six largest community-owned utility in the state with 70,000 customers.
It reported that the raccoon did not survive.
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