The over 180 households in Donghai ward of Taitung City faced a power outage on the morning of Dec. 5, with the culprits being termites.
The insects had damaged underground cables in the area, according to Taiwan Power Co. workers sent to examine the case.
Late in the afternoon, the power also went off at Dong Hai Elementary School and homes near the Taitung branch of the Taiwan Fund for Children and Families, causing many women to resort to cooking by flashlight. Ward chief Chen Ying said she began receiving calls from residents in the morning complaining about the power outage, and the number of calls only increased in the afternoon. She immediately contacted Taipower and asked them to explain what had happened.
The local Taipower office immediately dispatched a team of 20 workers to go down into utility tunnels to try to find the reason for the outage. They discovered that three power cables showed signs of having been gnawed by termites, and after the cables were replaced power was restored at 8 p.m.
Zhang Liang-gang, a Taipower official, explained that the cables have become subject to damage from termites since being moved underground. Each year Taipower allocates funding to prevent insects from damaging cables, he said, adding that the afternoon outage was caused by similar damage to cables located in a grassy area near Dong Hai Elementary School.
(This article originally appeared in The Liberty Times Dec. 6.)