Hawk on power lines caused large Bend outage

(Update: Hawk caused power outage)

A power outage that affected nearly 11,000 Pacific Power customers in Bend for about 20 minutes Tuesday afternoon was caused by a hawk who died in the encounter, officials said.

Pacific Power spokesman Tom Gauntt confirmed a witness account that a hawk had caused the outage by landing on wires along Southwest 13th Street in Bend.

A person in the area said a large hawk crossed the wires at that location at 3:17 p.m., killing the bird and knocking out power with a loud boom.

Birds often perch on power lines safely, but birds, squirrels or other animals can be electrocuted by touching two energized lines or pieces of power equipment, or one that is energized and another that is grounded, according to the Avian Power Line Interaction Committee.

The outage affected areas on both sides of the Deschutes River, from southwest Bend to the Old Mill District. Some other areas of town that didn’t lose power reported a power surge or blip.

Gauntt said the power was fully restored by 3:40 p.m.

Pacific Power on its Oregon outage map initially indicated it could take until 8 p.m. to fully restore power, as the utility often gives a conservative estimate. But the many affected areas, including Central Oregon Community College, said the power came back on in about 20 minutes.