JOHN CURLEY

Curley worries about a super raccoon roaming the city

May 11, 2016, 1:35 PM

Seattle City Light says power went out to nearly 39,000 homes and businesses at 2:45 a.m. Wednesday...

Seattle City Light says power went out to nearly 39,000 homes and businesses at 2:45 a.m. Wednesday. (Flickr, David Slater)

(Flickr, David Slater)

A raccoon has been blamed for knocking out the power of more than 38,000 Seattle City Light customers in Magnolia, Fremont, Queen Anne and Ballard. But KIRO Radio’s John Curley is more concerned about whether the raccoon is dead or alive. And if it is alive, what kind of damage this potentially superhuman mammal might cause next.

“Didn’t Spiderman get bitten by a spider that was radioactive?” Curley said. “Can’t this raccoon get stronger and more powerful in some way and effect us.”

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Seattle City Light said the raccoon entered a substation in Ballard and caused a disruption in service for 38,778 customers at 2:45 a.m. Wednesday. Power was restored later that morning.

Neighbor Jeff Pierce told KIRO 7 that he heard an explosion and then saw city workers trying to get a dazed raccoon that he thought had been shocked inside the substation to move on. Pierce said the city workers told him the animal caused the outage, but Seattle City Light later said they found the charred remains of another raccoon, according to KIRO 7.

Curley was skeptical that any animal could survive such a shock.

“That thing gets shocked with enough electricity, didn’t kill it, but knocked out all of Fremont, Ballard and Magnolia?” he asked.

Co-host Tom Tangney welcomes this potential super-critter to the city, in part because it’s already got a built in alter-ego.

“Rocky Raccoon!,” he sang. “We could make him a superhero; we’ve already got a name for him.”

John Curley on KIRO Newsradio 97.3 FM
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