NEW ORLEANS - Thousands of people lost power to their homes after a feline wandered into an Entergy substation in New Orleans Monday morning.

WWL reports the outages began around 8:30 a.m. Monday morning, leaving more than 7,000 people without power across the New Orleans area for some time.

A statement from Entergy explained a cat got into a substation and caused a flash when it touched the equipment. The company said it's unusual for an animal to get into a substation since it installs protective devices to keep animals out.

Entergy says the animal most likely did not survive the incident.