A busy beaver chewed through a tree which fell on a Consumers Energy power line and disrupted electrical service to 595 customers early Thursday morning.

Company General Manager Jim Kidd said he was notified of the outage at 4 a.m. The line fell down along a roadway bordering the Iowa River.

Crews had to clear the roadway before beginning repairs.

“Not many can report a beaver caused an outage, but we can,” Kidd said. “We had about half of those impacted back on service within 30 minutes and all customers had power approximately three hours later.”

Consumers Energy is a local, member-owned electric co-operative in Marshalltown, with an outpost located in Nevada. The co-operative provides electric service to over 5,000 members throughout five counties in Central Iowa: Marshall, Story, Polk, Jasper and Tama. Consumers Energy’s mission is to provide members with reliable electric service in a safe manner at affordable and equitable rates. For more information, contact 641-752-1593, 800-696-6552 or visit consumersenergy.coop.

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Contact Mike Donahey at 641-753-6611 or mdonahey@timesrepublican.com