STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. A power outage that left more than 1,000 customers on the South Shore without service Tuesday morning is believed to be caused by a critter making contact with electrical equipment.

The outage started at 7:51 a.m. and affected 1,176 customers in an area roughly bounded on the north by Woodrow Road, on the south by Hylan Boulevard, on the east by Amboy Road and on the west by Arthur Kill Road, according to Allan Drury, a spokesman for Con Edison.

Power was restored at about 8:50 a.m.

The initial investigation indicated that the cause was animal contact with electrical apparatus and equipment failure. The spokesman was unable to say what type of animal was to blame, but squirrels are the usual suspects.

The outage affected the 10307, 10309 and 10312 ZIP codes, according to the citys Notify NYC alert system.

Its the second time a large outage affected the South Shore in a week.

A massive outage left about 32,900 customers without service on Feb. 9.

We had a brief outage this morning on Staten Island due to equipment issues, said Allan Drury, a spokesman for Con Edison, about the Feb. 9 power blip. Most customers were restored nearly immediately while some were out for seven minutes.

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Staten Island wildlife suspected cause of outage that KOd power on South Shore - SILive.com