The big story in Oklahoma City on Monday was the record rainfall and flooding.  Other areas north of Oklahoma City, including Guthrie (about 34 miles south of me), also suffered from flooding.  In my town, we had major rain all day, but no real trouble with flooding.

But we did end up having some other trouble.  At about 9:30 PM Monday night, the electric power started flickering off and on in my house.  At 10:00 PM, the electricity shut off and stayed off.  I felt my way around the pitch black house, got my trusty flashlight, and went to investigate. 

Power was out all over the neighborhood.  I never realized just how much light there usually still is around my house after I turn off all my lights.  It was dark – I’m talking really dark!  Except for the lightning. 

I saw lots of lightning, so I assumed a transformer had been hit by lightning.  I read for a little bit – using my trusty flashlight.  Then I figured I might as well go to bed and hope the electricity was back on by morning. 

When I got up Tuesday morning, the electricity was back on.  Hurray!  Of course, I had to reset all the clocks.  But then I didn’t really think about the electrical problem again after that.  Funny how easy it is for us to ‘not’ think about something that we’re so used to having.

Then the afternoon newspaper came, and I saw the headline – “Snake causes power outage.”  What?!?  As it turns out, a snake slithered into a substation transformer and caused a two-hour power outage for over 4,000 customers.  Oh, my goodness!

I’m sorry – I know this wasn’t funny for many people, including the power company, police, firefighters, and many others.  But I can’t help but laugh at the ability of a little snake to cause such havoc.  Plus, what a surprise for the snake!  Eewwwwww!  Sorry. . . again.

I decided to do some research to see if snakes have ever caused problems for others – besides the obvious snakebite (Yikes!).  If you’re interested, here are a few websites I found about snake problems:

The Brown Treesnake causes electrical problems in Guam — http://www.fort.usgs.gov/resources/education/bts/impacts/electrical.asp

Brown Treesnakes transported from Guam to Hawaii and even Texas – causing electrical problem — http://www.state.hi.us/dlnr/Snake.html

Garter snakes can get into house — http://www.sdsnake.com/Prob.htm

Fact sheet about snakes in New York state — http://nwco.net/08-AppendixBNuisanceSpecies/8-15-Snakes.asp

Ophidiophobia – fear of snakes —http://www.way2hope.org/Illnesses/ophidiophobia-fear-snakes.htm

I know!  This is random stuff that doesn’t amount to much of anything.  Except that I did learn some new trivia that I might be able to use someday.

I also discovered that I may have ophidiophobia.  I’ve never liked snakes, and I don’t like having them around – at all.

Especially, when they knock out my electricity!

brown treesnake - http://library.thinkquest.org