Bird Knocks Out Power To Thousands Around San Diego

Power outages tend to be caused by weather, from heavy storms to extreme heat, but sometimes it is caused by something more unusual. Thousands of residents around San Diego were without power Wednesday (August 24) morning thanks to an unlikely source: a bird.

More than 14,000 homes and businesses in Eastern San Diego County lost power around 8:40 a.m. Wednesday, according to a San Diego Gas & Electric spokesperson. NBC San Diego reports that the outage affected several areas of the county for around three hours, including Lake Murray, Mission Gorge, Sycamore Canyon, La Mesa, Fletcher Hills, El Cajon, Allied Gardens, Del Cerro, Rolando, Talmadge and Kensington.

The outages also impacted San Diego State University, which students recently returned to for the start of classes this week, per FOX 5. SDSU officials sent an email update about the "unplanned power outage impacting parts of campus," adding that "restoration efforts [were] in progress."

By 10 a.m., around half of the affected customers had power restored, while the rest saw power resume by 11:30 a.m. While restoring power, officials also worked to determine the cause of the outages, ultimately determining that a bird somehow struck a piece of SDG&E equipment and knocked power out for thousands across the county.