It’s not every day that a single bird becomes the reason thousands of people lose power, but that’s exactly what happened in Halifax.
A crow managed to knock out electricity for more than 11,000 Nova Scotia Power customers after making contact with equipment at a substation on Kempt Road.
The outage hit Monday morning and, while it only lasted a little over an hour, it was enough to disrupt routines across a big part of the city.
What makes it interesting is just how something so small can have such a big impact. Power systems are complex, but they can also be surprisingly sensitive, and wildlife interference like this isn’t as rare as people might think.
The good news is crews were able to restore power relatively quickly, getting things back up and running by around 9:15 a.m.
Still, it’s one of those stories that reminds you how even the most everyday systems we rely on can be affected by something completely unexpected… like a crow having a moment at the wrong place at the wrong time.
