"Animal" Likely Culprit Behind 1 of 2 Manassas Power Outages

Not even Hurricane Sandy or a sudden summer derecho can cause mass outages in the city of Manassas, but city officials said an animal of some sort managed to take out power on several city streets this week.

The unknown animal is thought to be the culprit of the unexpected power outage in the Wellington area of Manassas Wednesday morning.

Residents and businesses on Godwin Drive, Hastings Drive, Wellington Road, Cloverhill Drive, Hendley Road, Dumfries Road and South Grant Avenue were affected by the outage.

Utility workers and city employees have yet to positively identify the animal, Manassas communications manager Patty Prince said.

Workers did say that the power was lost at 10:17 a.m. and returned about an hour later, at 11:13 a.m.

Later on Wednesday evening, a loose connection under a manhole in front of Round Elementary caused another outage— this time only on Cloverhill Drive and Hastings Drive, Prince said.

Manassas City, which owns and runs its own utility company, has escaped nearly unscathed from several weather events that knocked out power in nearby jurisdictions.

Most of the city's electrical lines are buried, city officials said.

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