‘Took out the whole thing’: Squirrel blamed for outage that left more than 6,600 without power in Garden City, Murrells Inlet areas

MURRELLS INLET, S.C. (WBTW) — A power outage that affected more than 6,600 Santee Cooper customers in the Garden City and Murrells Inlet areas of Horry and Georgetown counties was because of a squirrel, the utility said Wednesday afternoon.

“A squirrel got into the substation and took out the whole thing,” the utility told News13. “We’re working on getting it back up.”

The outage was east of Highway 17 and extended from Garden City to the southern end of Waccamaw Drive. The outage was reported at about 11:30 a.m.

Santee Cooper is investigating the cause of the outage. The utility told News13 at about 1:35 p.m. that all outages had been restored.

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Dennis Bright is the Digital Executive Producer at News13 . He joined the team in May 2021. Dennis is a West Virginia native and a graduate of Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. Follow Dennis on, Facebook , X, formerly Twitter , and read more of his work here .

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Caleb is a digital producer at News13. Caleb joined the team in January 2023 after graduating from Liberty University. He is from Northern Virginia. Follow Caleb on X, formerly Twitter, and read more of his work here .

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