BANGOR, Maine — A beaver is being blamed for knocking out power to thousands of electric customers in eastern Maine.
Utility Emera Maine says about 3,000 homes and businesses in Aroostook County were without electricity on Monday night when a beaver felled a tree that took down a transmission line. Spokesman Bob Potts says to make matters worse, the tree came down in a remote wooded area that was hard to reach.
The towns of Ludlow, Oakfield, Sherman, Island Falls and Patten were the hardest hit.
The number of outages was down to about 1,200 by 6 a.m. Tuesday and the utility hoped to have everyone back online by midmorning.
Several hundred customers, mostly in Hancock and Penobscot counties, also lost power overnight because of high winds from storms that moved through.