Eagle Lugging Deer Head Causes Power Blackout

This story is reminiscent of the 1984 general election in Alaska, which had a hotly contested ballot initiative on whether to move the capital from Juneau to Willow, north of Anchorage. I voted first thing in the morning, but a huge after-work turnout was anticipated. Then, about 4:00 p.m., there was a regional power outage in Anchorage and the Mat-Su valley, which lasted for about 8 or 10 hours. Voting was much reduced in the area, which was a stronghold of the pro-move forces. Immediately there were mutterings about conspiracy, which were not quelled by reports that it was unlucky ravens who had shorted the main transmission lines from the Beluga power plant.

At least in Juneau, the eagle did not interfere with an election.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070129/ap_on_re_us/eagle_power_outage

JUNEAU, Alaska - About 10,000 Juneau residents briefly lost power after a bald eagle lugging a deer head crashed into transmission lines.


"You have to live in Alaska to have this kind of outage scenario," said Gayle Wood, an Alaska Electric Light & Power spokeswoman. "This is the story of the overly ambitious eagle who evidently found a deer head in the landfill."

The bird, weighed down by the deer head, apparently failed to clear the transmission lines, she said. A repair crew found the eagle dead, the deer head nearby.

The power was out for less than 45 minutes Sunday.