A car navigates through the intersection of Jefferson Street and Main Street in downtown Franklin during the power outage tonight.
Duke Energy has confirmed the power outage reported this afternoon in downtown Franklin was caused by a squirrel.
The animal was “interfering with equipment in our Forsythe substation,” a Duke spokesperson said. More than 5,800 customers were affected, with that number down to about 3,900 still out as of around 8 p.m.
Power was initially expected to come back on at 8 p.m. Crews are working on restoring service to the remaining customers. Crews will be working throughout the evening to complete restoration, the Duke spokesperson says.
The outage broke out in the areas surrounding downtown shortly before the close of business for government offices and local retail shops. The outage also caused restaurants and bars to close for the night.
Stoplights were out at several key intersections on Jefferson Street and U.S. 31, which prompted Franklin police to put up stop signs to remind motorists they must treat these intersections like a four-way stop during a power outage.
For real-time outage updates visit the Indiana outage map Duke Energy’s website.
– Editor Leeann Doerflein and News Editor Noah Crenshaw contributed to this report.
