Squirrel takes out power in downtown Nashville

Some residences and businesses lost power in downtown Nashville late Monday afternoon, thanks to the work of a squirrel.

Though it wasn't immediately clear how many Nashville Electric Service customers were affected by the early evening outage, it appeared the Metro courthouse was among buildings that lost electricity, causing the city council to temporarily adjourn multiple times.

"Unfortunately, the outage was caused by a squirrel and it took out an entire circuit," a representative from NES tweeted around 5:45 p.m.

By that time, power had been restored in most areas, though some repairs were still needed.

It also wasn't immediately clear what NES suspects the squirrel did to cause the outage, though the company noted that "squirrels are one of the top causes for power outages" and "unfortunately wander into places they shouldn't sometimes."