Squirrel Causing Power Outage in Xiaogang, Kaohsiung 高雄小港1910戶停電 松鼠碰高壓線導致

Power went out in Xiaogang District of Kaohsiung early morning on April 1, and a squirrel seemed to be the cause of the power outage. In Shitan Borough of Kaohsiung, water outages have been going on for almost a week. Residents expressed their dissatisfaction.

Customers at the hair parlor had to wait for the power to come back on to finish their haircuts. A squirrel has been blamed for the power outage on several roads in Xiaogang District of Kaohsiung earlier this morning around 7 a.m. on April 1. It seemed to have come in contact with live wires. A total of 1,910 households were affected for 40 minutes.

Kaohsiung resident: “I'm not done washing my load. It was going to go into a spinning cycle and the power went out. I'm still in the middle of washing and it's really inconvenient.”

Kaohsiung resident: “The power outage is frustrating. It's hard for elders to go to the restroom because it's dark. It's hard to find the way when it got dark all of a sudden.”

Some parents could not take their kids to school on time since the rolling metal door to their garage could not work without electricity. Some had to rewash their clothes because washing machines stopped running. Animals quite often are the cause of power outages; residents feel that authorities should do more to deal with this problem. Taipower said that power came back in the area by 8:43 a.m. Meanwhile, residents in Shitan Borough in Gangshan District of Kaohsiung suffered from almost a week of water outage.   Residents have not been able to wash their clothes during this period of time. This made any kind of washing and even going to the restroom very difficult. People are very frustrated.

Shitan resident: “It's been three days. We've been getting water from the water truck. Our arms are about to break from carrying these water buckets.”

Shitan resident: “We come every day for water. The borough chief told us yesterday that water would be back at around 10 a.m., but it didn't happen.”

According to local Shitan residents, water pipes got repeatedly damaged during a road widening project going on in the area, causing water to be cut off already for four days straight. 

Liao I-cheng, Shitan Borough Chef: “If we can't have water back by today, we want to call for a stop to the road widening project.”

The local borough chief communicated with the Taiwan Water Corporation to have them send water trucks over for rescue. Residents say that while it is understandable that road projects would result in water outages, damages should be kept minimal since they cannot deal with water outages for too long.  

等到電來才能幫客人理髮，高雄小港區北林、東林、朝興路附近，清晨7時多，因為松鼠碰觸高壓裸線，導致饋線跳脫，當地1910戶停電40分鐘。

民眾說：「還沒洗好，它要脫（水）就碰沒電了，我現在還在洗，這樣是對我們比較不方便。」

另名民眾說：「當然停電就困擾，黑漆漆，老人要去廁所也不能去，黑漆漆找不到路，突然停電。」

突來的停電，有民眾一早想載孩子上學，卻因鐵門打不開卡住，還有民眾衣服洗到一半跳電，還得重新再洗，也認為頻繁因為動物碰觸導致停電的狀況，應該想辦法因應。

台電表示，經過同仁搶修，已在8時43分全數復電。而高雄除了小港區停電，岡山區也停水。

髒衣服堆滿滿，想洗還沒水可洗，這是岡山區石潭里民這一禮拜的日常，因為水龍頭一滴水都沒有，不只洗衣服、洗澡，連上個廁所都沒水沖，環境衛生大受影響，也讓里民忍無可忍。

當地居民指出：「3天了，昨天就提水了，都提水，你看我們提到手快要痛死。」

另名當地居民也說：「每天都來裝水，昨天里長是在說，差不多10時就好了，但是後來也是黃牛。」

民眾說，當地進行道路拓寬工程，已陸續停水4天，過程中挖破管線，沒想到修好又傳出另一條管線，因地基崩塌影響破掉，得再停水。

高雄岡山區石潭里長廖壹正表示：「假如今天沒有辦法讓我們，里民可以暫時有水可以用的話，我們就不希望他們再開挖。」

里長協調自來水公司派水車讓民眾應急，民眾說因為施工問題得停水可以理解，但不斷破管拉長缺水時間，就讓他們難以忍受。