Utility Squirrely About Covering Surge Damage

"PGE Customers Watch Helplessly As A Power Surge Fries Their Appliances

PORTLAND, Posted 7:06 p.m. October 4, 1999 -- Thousands of Portlanders have burnt out computers, fried television sets and malfunctioning microwaves.

Now, most of those people blame Portland General Electric, reported KOIN 6 News.

When a mischievous squirrel tangled with some power lines and caused a massive power surge Sunday, electrical appliances in nearly 3,000 affected homes in north Portland and the St. Johns neighborhood were ruined.

Worst of all, reported KOIN, the victims are learning that they'll probably get stuck with the bill.

"The lights got real bright, like they were going to explode," St. Johns resident Michelle Gomez told KOIN. "They went out, things popped and they came right back on."

When the power surge was over, Gomez lost three televisions, a computer and a microwave.

"I open it, and there's power," she told KOIN. "But the panel does nothing. The brains of the microwave are gone. It's just a box with a light."

Gomez is one of 3,000 PGE customers in St. Johns hit by the surge. While some lost power, others lost everything from answering machines to VCRs.

"I've never seen such a surge in repair requests," Tom Lund of Lund's Electronics told KOIN. "I've been absolutely inundated."

The unlucky squirrel that started it all acted as a conductor, sending 11,000 volts of power through a 4,000-volt line, reported KOIN. Many surge protectors couldn't even handle the shock.

Gomez told KOIN she worries about fixing her appliances and the electrical outlets that still don't work.

But she'll get no help from PGE.

"Equipment damage caused by wildlife or acts of God are not covered by PGE," utility spokesman Kregg Arntson told KOIN. "The homeowner will have to pay for that damage."

PGE says it has installed more than 100,000 devices called squirrel guards to help prevent this from happening, but sometimes the squirrels still find a way to cause problems.

Homeowner's insurance and renter's insurance policies may cover the damage -- minus deductibles. So check your policies to make sure they pay for repairs, and get some high quality surge protectors before it's too late and simply becomes a matter of trying to get the ruined stuff fixed.

Tom Lund's waiting list is already at three weeks and counting." _____________________________________________________________________

The power company should have had the wires better protected from squirrels. They should have to pay for the damages and a large settlement to the relatives of the deceased squirrel.

If I am not mistaken, insurance companies also claim that Y2K damages are an "act of God"!!

Does anyone make a surge protector that can handle the 11,000 volt surge?

-- @ (@@@.@), October 05, 1999

Answers

SHOW ME THE BODY!!

-- incredulous (cantbelievit@aol.com), October 05, 1999.

If we're not USING an appliance/computer/CD player, etc, it is UNPLUGGED. Period. Gonna go to Fry's (yeah ;) and buy a couple powerful surge protectors for the computers.

Amazing how many squirrel outages we've been experiencing around here -- at least 2 per day, some as long as 7 hours at a time. "Equipment damage caused by wildlife or acts of God are not covered by PGE" my oh my how convenient, hhhmmm.

If we see the lights brightening, we'll pull the plug directly, immediately. Will it be shocking?

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (major Squirrel territory) (allaha@earthlink.net), October 05, 1999.

True story, happened about 5 years ago:

It was a dark and stormy night.

I woke around 1 a.m. to see the night light in the hall flickering like a strobe. Rolled over and saw the clock radio frantically counting off about 24 hours every minute. Went out in the hall and saw a glow coming from my daughter's room. Her 7-watt night light was giving off about 40 watts worth of light.

I went downstairs and caught a faint burning smell. I knew I had to shut off the main breaker, but of course, the flashlight was dead. I went outside and maneuvered the car to shine the headlights into the utility room so I could see the breaker box.

Next I called the power company. They said the problem was probably in my house, but they would send a crew. I called an electrician at the crack of dawn, but by the time he got there, the power company had come.

The problem was indeed at the pole. A branch rubbing against the wire had somehow disturbed the power so I was getting too much juice at one end of the house and practically none at the other. The VCR was fried, and the surge protector for the PC was actually scorched on the bottom, but it did its job. The microwave, at the other end of the house, was fine.

Is this what they mean by "dirty power"?

-- Thinman (thinman38@hotmail.com), October 05, 1999.

You will ALL suffer the consequences of ignoring us!!!Our masses are poised to utterly destroy the Furless Ape Men's powergrid for all time!!!This is just the beginning!!!Prepare to meet your maker!!!We will be Triumphant!!!Long Live the Rodent Revolution!!!

-- The Squirrel King (StillNuts@upina.Tree), October 05, 1999.

Squirrel King, how can we appease you? Hazelnuts, pecans, almonds? You see, all our gadgets need power to work. Can we cut a deal?

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), October 05, 1999.

I say, shoot him in the nuts. Let's see how far the vermin get without their King!

:)

-- Will continue (farming@home.com), October 05, 1999.

If the refrigerator blows, it will cause major fire and damage to your home. There was an article in our paper a few years ago about exploding refrigerators. I think the newer models have a built in surge protector, but my understanding of those is that it will work stopping surges once or after lots of mini surges be no good at all.

-- Carol (glear@usa.net), October 05, 1999.

It's obvious that squirrels don't have bureaucrats...they're getting too much work done.

-- Mabel Dodge (cynical@me.net), October 05, 1999.

incredulous,

LOL! That's what I was thinking... show me the body! These squirrel stories are becoming a little too frequent and much too hard to believe. Maybe someone out there who knows about power can tell us, but I find it difficult to believe that they would have two wires close enough to each other that they could be joined by the body of a squirrel (maybe 8" tall), allowing 4,000 volts to become 11,000. If that were the case then it seems like it would also be possible for the current to arc or jump right over to the other wire.

I think the people in that neighborhood should get a lawyer and file a class action suit. Put the burden of proof on the power company (show me the body!). They claim that they put protective guards on the wires... well how come it didn't work? Gross negligence IMO. Sue those bastards!! I don't have insurance, so if my computer gets fried, I'll be looking for someone to broil.

-- @ (@@@.@), October 05, 1999.

The major cause of lines tripping is Lightning. I dont know exactly what the second cause is, my guess it would be probably be trees followed by small animals.

This type of fault is called a Cross Country fault. And no, I have no idea where the term came from. Basically its a fault that goes from one power line to another. Its rare compared to Line to Ground (the most common) or Line to Line (second most common) faults.

It is not unusual for companies to build multi voltage lines on the same right away. Right of ways are extremely expensive. There have been cases of 500 KV lines falling on 115 KV lines. Same thing on a bigger scale.

The reason you are noticing the squirrel stories now is you are looking for them. These type of outages (animal caused, not cross country faults) have been around for years. I dont think anyone doing any research would find any differences in averages over a 10 year period.

@ I think you forgot the length of the squirrels tail. Makes it a lot longer then 8 inches. And once the arc is established it goes on until its cleared. Protective guards dont work 100% of the time just like shield wires dont always shield from lightning.

They can hire a lawyer but unless they can prove that the company acted outside of the norm I dont think theyll win. Its kind of like lightning. If lightning hits a line with in a few yards of your house youll loose a lot of stuff. Things that big cant be protected from happening under normal circumstances. One problem is that at the distribution level clearing times are usually slower then at the higher voltages. But its common industry practice for coordination purposes. If you have homeowners it might be covered under that. Give it a try.

Thinman sounds like you had a major neutral or ground problem. My guess is you were very lucky there wasnt a fire.

-- The Engineer (The Engineer@tech.com), October 05, 1999.

Yes, squirrels can be a problem....

-- More Dinty Moore (dac@ccrtc.com), October 05, 1999.

Your Most Bushy-Tailed Magnitudiness,

I wish to report that "Operation Portland-Poof" has been carried out as ordered. The pink hairless apes are reporting great difficulties in their refridgerative and microwavive abililties. Apparantly, a call for help has been transmitted to their legal beagle unit, which may be a type of K-9 mercenary brigade.

With this resounding victory upon the powerlines of battle, we are ever closer to the end of resistance and our ultimate destiny of total domination. When the hairless apes no longer have the magic of electric winter boxes, they will be forced to reveal their secret hoards of fruitcake nuts.

Returning once more into the arena, I salute you.

Long Live the Rodent Revolution!

Agent Nutsy

P.S.- To Will Continue:

We KNOW who you are. We KNOW where you live. We have ways to make you nuts.

-- Agent Nutsy (lgal@exp.net), October 05, 1999.

The Engineer:

"trees followed by small animals".

Yes, that's a description of "tripping".

-- Randolph (dinosaur@williams-net.com), October 05, 1999.

(1) Having lived in the mountains (several times), I an affirm that squirrels do cause all too many power outages.

(2) How do we know for sure that it was not deliberate sabotage?

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), October 05, 1999.