Snake slithers into high-voltage substation, causes power outage for 11,000 US residents

The exact species of the snake responsible for the outage remains unidentified. (Representational)

A power outage that left around 11,700 residents in Virginia, US, without electricity on Saturday, was traced back to an unlikely culprit—a snake. The incident occurred in areas surrounding Kiln Creek, central Newport News, and Christopher Newport University, plunging thousands into darkness as Dominion Energy crews scrambled to restore power.

The outage began when the snake slithered into a high-voltage area and made contact with a transformer, triggering a chain reaction that knocked out power across the affected regions. As reported by Dominion Energy, the outage impacted over 6,000 customers as of 9:15 pm, with full service being restored by 10:30 pm, roughly an hour and a half after the initial reports of disruption.

While the exact species of the snake responsible for the outage remains unidentified, Virginia is home to both eastern garter snakes and eastern rat snakes, both of which are known to inhabit areas near substations and power lines.

In May, Tennessee witnessed a spate of similar outages near Nashville, where gray rat snakes infiltrated the Henpeck substation in Franklin. These snakes managed to find their way into the powered equipment, causing short circuits that resulted in widespread power disruptions.

The frequency of these incidents in Tennessee was so unusual that Middle Tennessee Electric (MTE) issued an email to customers, labelling the situation as "unprecedented" and "very unusual”. Four incidents were reported in eight days, officials said.