Snake departure leaves more than 11,000 customers without power

A snake just knocked out power to some communities.

According to 13 NBC News, WTKR, UPI and 10 WAVY, Dominion Energy officials said a snake killed approximately 11,700 people in the area surrounding Kiln Creek, Virginia, central Newport News and Christopher Newport University on Saturday, August 10. Customers lose power.

The snake slipped into a high-voltage area and came into contact with a transformer, causing a power outage. More than 6,000 outages occurred every 10 WAVY around 9:15 p.m.

According to 13 NBC News, Dominion Energy crews restored service to all customers around 10:30 p.m., about an hour and a half after the outage was first reported.

The species of the snake responsible has not yet been determined. However, both the Eastern garter snake and the Eastern rat snake are native to Virginia.

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In May, four snake-related power outages occurred near Nashville. Throughout the month, several snakes entered the Humpec Substation in Franklin, Tennessee.

In Tennessee, most of these snakes are identified as gray rat snakes. They invade substations and their power supply equipment, causing short circuits in the equipment.

At the time, Middle Tennessee Electric (MTE) sent an email to customers calling the situation “unprecedented” and “highly unusual.”

Ross further explained the rarity of the situation in a separate interview with WKRN, adding: “One manager I spoke to said he had been in this position for 20 years and had experienced it maybe twice. ” [snakes] He also remembered that we had recorded four times in eight days.

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Representatives for Dominion Energy did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for more information on Tuesday, Aug. 13.