Squirrel blamed for power outage to 3,000 Leavenworth County houses

The squirrel may have bumped the turkey as the center of conversation in homes across Leavenworth County and parts of Johnson this Thanksgiving.

That's because one of the small, furry critters is being blamed for causing a power outage to more than 3,000 customers Thursday morning. Westar Energy aired the news on its Twitter account.

“Sorry about interrupting your cooking plans,” a Westar employee tweeted around 10 a.m.

The employee explained how a squirrel apparently got inside a substation and caused fuses to blow. Westar used Twitter to reach out to customers as well as its web page and Facebook.

On its Facebook page, the company offered apologies at 10 a.m. Thursday. Then an hour later, an update: “We are sorry for the problems this causes with your Thanksgiving cooking, trust that our crews are working as quickly and safely as possible to restore power.”

The company hoped to have the power back on to most customers by12:30 p.m..

At around 12 p.m., Westar’s webpage showed that more than 1,200 customers were still without power.

But crews worked fast.

Lo and behold, at 12:30, the web page showed only 44 customers without power.

This story was originally published November 28, 2013 at 12:54 PM with the headline "Squirrel blamed for power outage to 3,000 Leavenworth County houses."