SOUTH HADLEY - A squirrel caused electricity to arc in a substation, spurring a cascading power outage that quickly enveloped the entire town.

"At 7:30, we had a squirrel get across two circuits," said Wayne Doerpholz, manager of the South Hadley Electric Light Department.

Another complication, he said, was that one of the electrical system's substations was off line for construction, leaving the whole town on one transformer. "The construction was supposed to be completed tomorrow," said Doerpholz. "If this had happened on Friday it would have been a blink of the lights."

Power was restored in about an hour, but in the meantime, police officers had to direct traffic at the major intersections in town, said Sgt. Mark Lennihan.

Doerpholz said the substations are the only place in the electrical system in town where circuits are exposed and squirrels frequently get jolted. "They find them all the time," he said.

Wednesday morning's squirrel did not survive the incident, he said.

The major complaint from customers Wednesday morning was the inability to contact the municipal utility and get or provide information. Doerpholz said he does not know why the phone system did not function properly, and he will check with its provider.