Itchy Cow(s) to Blame for Intermittent Power Loss, Says Grant PUD

After a week of hapless toil, Grant PUD's sleuthing has finally paid off. The utility has determined that "one or more cows" are to blame for faltering power equipment and persistent, albeit sporadic, outages in pockets of Grant County.

The county's power woes started on Wednesday.

Judging by a wealth of anecdotal evidence, cows have high emotional and cognitive intelligence. But let's face it - these are primitive creatures. A chronically itchy cow will seek out a guy wire to relieve itself. That's what Grant PUD says happened in Winchester. (Guy wires are unelectrified, tensioned cables used to buttress electrical power poles.)

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"As a cow rubs against the guy wire for a scratch," explains the PUD on its blog, "it shakes the entire pole, causing the attached power lines to sway and touch each other." This had an inauspicious domino effect. It caused the electrical fault that robbed 220 people of reliable electricity access.

The loss of power wasn't exclusive to Winchester. On Sunday, we spoke to a Ephrata man cooped up in an RV with his wife. The couple was taking its austere living situation in stride: "We have batteries, so it's not too bad for us," chirped Randy Marrone. " "This is big though - it's the whole area. Some people are probably real cold."

"We've called the PUD. They just said, 'The cause is unknown at this time. We'll let you know when it comes back up.'"

Only this wasn't bureaucratic stonewalling. The PUD sincerely had no explanation.

"Intermittent outages such as these are difficult to diagnose, since power has reset by the time crews get to the location to search for damage."

"Crews have yet to observe a cow in the process of scratching, but have seen this happen in the past. [In this case], a herd of cows are grazing nearby, gleaning from a harvested corn field. Crews' previous inspections ruled out other potential causes."

Better to be proactive than reactive, but at least the PUD is doing something. Crews will erect concrete barriers to keep the itchy, pesky bovines at bay.

"They are also working to 'sectionalize' the feeder, so any future outages will affect fewer customers."