Raccoon blamed for Jersey City power outage

A wayward raccoon is being blamed for a power outage in Jersey City that plunged 11,700 customers into darkness on Friday night and halted PATH service.

Jersey City during a power outage on Friday night (ABC 7)

ABC 7 reports the raccoon came in contact with the top of a transformer in PATH's switching yard which resulted in halted train service between New York and New Jersey for two hours.

The city was eerily dark on Friday night as trains and buses stopped in their place, the only illumination being the light of phones as people took to their devices to take pictures and look for information about the outage.

Port Authority spokesman Chris Valens says PATH trains were suspended around 8 p.m. Friday between Journal Square in Jersey City and the World Trade Center in New York as a result of the PSEG outage. The service resumed before 10 p.m.

Only a handful of customers remained without power early Saturday.