VIDALIA — The Vidalia mayor praised the town utility department Tuesday for swiftly restoring electrical power after a brief, but town-wide outage on Monday night. Mayor Buz Craft said two raccoons got into the substation and knocked the power out for the entire town, but town crews had the power back up in approximately 30 minutes.

“Last night we were attacked by two raccoons at the substation,” Craft said, jokingly, at a regularly scheduled board of aldermen meeting Tuesday.

The power went out shortly after 11 p.m. and was back up by 11:36 p.m.

“We feel like we have the best employees and best staff at the utility department, bar none,” Craft said. “I would like to thank them for their work.

“I’d also like to thank people for their patience as they were getting it back on.”

Craft said the raccoons were killed when they shorted out equipment at the town’s electrical power substation.

Craft also said the town’s water department recently received a good report from the state office of public health.

The office’s survey reported no violations.

“Recently I got back from New Orleans,” Craft said, describing the poor water in the larger city. “I got to a hotel and could not brush my teeth. We had to buy water to brush our teeth with.”

Craft said Vidalia is blessed to have the water system and local utility crews it has.

“I just wanted to give notice to Mark (Morace) and them for all doing a good job,” Craft said. “I think it is something we take for granted, being able to drink our water and brush our teeth. I want to thank y’all.”

Morace is the superintendent of utilities.