SELINSGROVE — The death of one lowly squirrel is being blamed for a power outage that snarled morning traffic in Selinsgrove and left almost 3,000 PPL customers - including a number of popular breakfast restaurants - without power for almost two hours.

The squirrel caused a short circuit in a Selinsgrove electric substation knocked out power to 2,700 customers in Selinsgrove and Monroe Township, according to PPL spokesman Don Stringfellow.

All but 600 had service back by 9 a.m., Stringfellow said. Service was restored by switching power routing around the damaged substation. He said repairs at the substation would be completed Friday afternoon.

Selinsgrove Director of Public Works Corby Bowersox understood immediately the impact of the early morning power outage on traffic near the schools, so he grabbed a portable generator and a few employees and went to work.

“We got the call at 7:20 a.m. the power was out and we knew it would be out for a while,” he said.

A former employee of a traffic signal company, Bowersox said he was able to set the generator up to a signal light at the intersection of Route 522 and Broad Street to allow traffic to flow easier.

By 7:40 a.m., the signal lights at the intersection were working again.

Bowersox said it saved a lot of “aggravation” of having to employ borough or state police to direct traffic at the major intersection during a busy traffic period.