The outage hit at 7:16 p.m. and because the stick was small and hidden, it took utility crews time to find it, said Randy Coleman, area manager for Penn Power. The stick stuck between a high voltage line and a transformer and burned, damaging the transformer.

"There was nothing we could do until we found that doggone stick,'' Coleman said.

Over the last year that area has been hit by a number of outages caused by sticks or trees outside the rights of way for power lines, Coleman said.

"We've trimmed as far back as we have the right to on the rights of way, but we'll conduct an inspection to see if anything further can be done to prevent future outages,'' he said.