Cody experienced a power outage in the early hours of Friday, Aug. 26. The reason for the outage was not the lightning from the night’s weather forecast – it was a raccoon.

It sounds absurd, but it’s an issue the City of Cody has encountered several times.

In April 2021, a similar power outage was caused by a raccoon climbing into and “tripping out” a W.A.P.A. substation near Beck Lake. Dane Austin, Electric Superintendent of the City of Cody, said that this was “the third time it’s happened.”

The plan was to improve the infrastructure surrounding the substation to keep animals out and away from any of the wirings for the electrical grids. But, if that infrastructure was ever put in place, it wasn’t enough to stop a determined trash panda.

As of 6 a.m., all power in the City of Cody has been restored. There is no word on the status of the guilty raccoon.

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P.O. Box 1210, Cody, WY 82414 1949 Mountain View Dr., Cody, WY 82414