Iguana causes large scale power outage in South Florida city
One of Florida's infamous invasive iguanas wreaked havoc in one of the state's southern cities on Wednesday.
The City of Lake Worth Beach announced that one of the scaly green creatures was responsible for a "large scale outage" of power.
"[Lake Worth Beach] Electric Utility is currently responding to a large scale outage caused by an iguana at our 6th Ave Substation," the city tweeted just before noon on Wednesday. "This outage is effecting customers in the South East area of our service territory. Our teams are working hard to repair the damage and restore the system."
The city has not provided further updates since the announcement, but in a map that they referred people to that tracks outages in the city, it appears as though all outages have been restored.
One woman commented on the city's original Facebook post saying that the iguana in her neighborhood "went up under the transformer or something but he blew it and he fried."
CBS News has reached out to the city for more information on the incident.
Green iguanas are known for causing trouble across Florida. According to the state's Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the species is considered invasive. They are instead native to Central America and the tropics of South America and some Caribbean islands, but are so rampant in Florida that they have been the source of injury to many.
In 2020, for example, a 62-year-old man had to get stitches after an iguana ran in front of his bicycle, causing him to crash, CBS Miami reported.
They can grow to be more than five feet long and weigh up to 17 pounds, and are known for feasting on vegetation, bird eggs and dead animals, causing damage to residential and commercial areas. They can also damage infrastructure with their burrowing, which can erode and collapse sidewalks, the commission said.
Perhaps what they're most known for, however, is falling out of trees.
When temperatures dip below 50 degrees Fahrenheit, the massive iguanas get cold-stunned and appear to suddenly drop dead – although they are very much alive.
