Geese are the likely culprits of knocking a power line into the Animas River south of Durango, causing about 90 homes to lose power for more than five hours Tuesday night.

Indiana Reed, spokeswoman for La Plata Electric Association, said a power outage was reported around 5:20 p.m. Tuesday near the intersection of County Road 215 and La Posta Road (County Road 213), affecting 91 customers.

LPEA’s linemen went out to check the power line in single-digit temperatures, not knowing what happened or where the line went down.

“They had to patrol the whole system to find the outage,” Reed said. “That’s why it took so long.”

Eventually, the linemen found the downed line and started repairing the system. Power was restored around 10:40 p.m., Reed said.

Reed said an LPEA customer called in later to say a flock of geese was sitting on the power line and damaged it.

“We don’t know if they actually pulled down the line or if there were too many of them on the line,” she said. “As we know, they are moving around, and they apparently thought the line was a good place to hang out. But wildlife can impact our electric lines.”

Reed said LPEA is always appreciative when customers call in to report suspected causes of outages.

“If they (linemen) knew a bunch of geese were sitting on the line, they could have went directly there,” she said.

jromeo@durangoherald.com