POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. (AP) – A snake is being blamed for disrupting power at a Hudson Valley hospital after it slithered into a switch box outside the building.

Officials at Vassar Brothers Hospital in Poughkeepsie say backup generators kicked on after the main power supply was lost Tuesday afternoon when a common-variety snake got into a switch box about 150 feet from the building. Workers found the dead snake in the power box.

Hospital officials say there were no patient care disruptions caused by the outage, which lasted from 3 p.m. Tuesday to 1 a.m. Wednesday. Some emergency room cases had to be diverted to other hospitals.

While squirrels and other small animals have been known to get into electrical equipment and cause outages, a utility spokesman says it’s the first time he’s heard of a snake causing a short circuit.

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