THOMASVILLE — Everything was rocking along smoothly on hot, muggy Sunday morning until 12 minutes before 11.

Power outages sprang up everywhere. The outage lasted only six and a half minutes, but it wreaked havoc at crowded businesses.

“A lot of people were at Wal-Mart, Publix, Lowe’s and Factor Fitness,” said Chris White, City of Thomasville executive director of utilities. “I heard from a lot of them.”

Archbold Memorial Hospital on the opposite side of the city also experienced the outage. The hospital’s generator kicked in immediately.

White said 5,700 electric customers were affected.

Two substations went out — one that serves the area around the hospital and one behind Wendy’s that serves the U.S. 19 area.

A raccoon or an opossum climbed into the substation behind Wendy’s, setting off the string of outages.

“Technically, those stations belong to the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia.” White said. 

The city is charged with maintaining the stations.

Georgia Power experienced a small outage for customers just outside the city, White said. 

“Georgia Power has equipment co-located in this substation,” he added.

“This varmint got in there and caused this big fault,” White said. 

He said that what occurred is like tripping a breaker in a house.

Permanent damage resulted to the substation transformer.

The breaker was reset in the hospital area. The substation behind Wendy’s remains nonfunctional. Power is being rerouted through other city substations until repairs are complete.

Whether the animal that got into the substation was a raccoon or an opossum is not known because of electrical impact on the creature.

The incident demonstrates the vulnerability of city electrical equipment, he added.

Senior reporter Patti Dozier can be reached at (229) 226-2400, ext. 1820 

Senior reporter Patti Dozier can be reached at (229) 226-2400, ext. 1820