A power outage has knocked out electricity to 7,400 Portland General Electric customers in Southeast Portland.

"I sound like a broken record," said PGE spokesman Steve Corson. "I've been saying this a lately, but there's a squirrel at the root of our problems this morning."

Corson said a squirrel took out a substation at Southeast 96th Avenue and Division Street. Crews hope to have all power restored by 9:30 a.am., he said.

Among other things, traffic lights throughout Southeast Portland are dark during the morning commute.

The outage has hit customers in the following ZIP codes: 97206, 97215, 97216 and 97266.

-- Joseph Rose