A squirrel that became tangled up in some power lines near McCormick Place caused a brief power outage in the Near South Side area Sunday morning, but the outage did not affect the Chicago Auto Show, which is taking place at the exhibition hall.

 

The outage affected an area between Cermak Road on the north to 23rd Street on the south; Lake Shore Drive on the east to Calumet Avenue on the west.

 

The outage occurred about 9:30 a.m., according to Commonwealth Edison spokesman John Schoen. ComEd crews worked to restore power and got the affect area back up by 10 a.m.

 

The Auto Show, taking place at McCormick Place, 2301 S. Lake Shore Dr., was not affected by the outage, Schoen said.

 

According to fire department dispatch reports, the outage appeared to have been caused by a squirrel that became entangled in some electrical wires in that area.

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