Iguana causes power outage in South Florida city

LAKE WORTH BEACH, Fla. — Some species of iguanas are considered invasive in Florida. One iguana in a South Florida city was very invasive, knocking out power for more than 30 minutes.

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The city of Lake Worth Beach tweeted Wednesday that there was a large-scale outage in the city caused by the reptile, WPTV reported. The outage occurred at the city’s 6th Avenue North substation.

According to city officials, the iguana’s tail hit the transformer, causing the outage, WPBF-TV reported.

Jason Bailey, Lake Worth Beach’s assistant director of system operations, told WPTV that power was restored within 35 minutes.

City spokesman Ben Kerr said the outage impacted 1,431 customers.

“The iguanas are a particularly complex issue but one that we, and other utilities, are addressing,” Kerr said in a statement.

The iguana, which was “on top” of the transformer, died because of the electric surge, according to WPBF.

According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, iguanas -- particularly the green iguana -- can cause damage by digging burrows that erode and collapse sidewalks, foundations, seawalls, berms and canal banks.

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