---
title: "Unfortunate Snake Causes Power Outage for 10,000 Homes"
description: "A single snake found its way into the Tohoku Electric Power station in Japan and caused an outage that lasted an hour for 10,000 homes on Wednesday."
date: "2022-07-03"
modified: "2022-07-03"
authors:
  - name: "Lonnie Lee Hood"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/ahood"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/snake-power-outage-10000-homes"
categories:
  - "Climate Change"
  - "Environment"
  - "Science & Energy"
tags:
  - "climate"
  - "energy"
  - "environment"
  - "the digest"
---

# Unfortunate Snake Causes Power Outage for 10,000 Homes

![A single snake found its way into the Tohoku Electric Power station in Japan and caused an outage that lasted an hour for 10,000 homes on Wednesday.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/snake-power-outage-10000-homes.png>)
*\<em\>Image: Getty / Futurism \</em\>*

## RIP

How many snakes does it take to slither into a substation and short the circuits?

Nearly 10,000 households in Japan found out the answer on Wednesday when a single snake found its way into the Tohoku Electric Power station and caused an outage that lasted an hour. The snake connected with a live wire while searching for shade, [according to *Japan Today News*](<https://japantoday.com/category/national/snake-sparks-power-outage-for-nearly-10-000-homes-in-fukushima>), causing a safety shutdown at around 2 pm.

Although residents were surely uncomfortable without A/C on a hot summer day, *JTN* said plenty of folks expressed sympathy for the dearly departed serpent on social media.

"Rest in peace, snake," one comment that *JTN* translated reads.

"Poor snake!" another online reader apparently said. "The company should apologize and compensate its family.”

## Human Nature

Some commenters were surely being a little sarcastic, but it's no joke that animals have a big impact on human infrastructure.

Previous news reports from Japan say ["excessive" dog pee caused](<https://soranews24.com/2021/07/14/excessive-dog-pee-to-blame-for-traffic-light-collapse-japanese-police-think/>) a traffic light to collapse in 2021, and in 2013 [bird poop disabled](<https://soranews24.com/2013/09/01/bird-poop-disables-25000-traffic-signals-in-nagano/>) 25,000 traffic signals. It's not just in Japan, either. Experts said this week that [electrocuted birds catch fire](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/birds-starting-wildfire-power-lines>) and fall to the ground, igniting wildfires that demolish homes and acres of land.

Humans as a species have been building homes and infrastructure for thousands of years — you'd think we'd have learned how to co-exist with our animal neighbors just a little better by now.

**More on things we ought to know by now:** [*Terrifying Video Shows Self-Driving Tesla Head Into Oncoming Traffic*](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/terrifying-video-self-driving-tesla-oncoming-traffic>)