FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. – Over 5,000 customers remain without power in the B.C. Peace following Wednesday night’s storm.
The largest outage is affecting the Charlie Lake area and covers approximately 1,700 customers. Another large outage runs from Cecil Lake to Rose Prairie and the Doig River First Nation.
B.C. Hydro says crews are responding to multiple reports of downed wires and trees that have fallen on power lines. Crews have been dispatched to the largest outages first.
Bob Gammer with B.C. Hydro says “We are organizing the response to the remaining outages and will be utilizing contractor crews to supplement our own. While we work to get as many customers on as we can, due to the volume of calls, we expect some customers will be without power for the day. We are usually able to restore 90%+ of affected customers within the first 24 hours following widespread damage from a large storm. We ask customers for their patience while restoration work is underway.”
B.C. Hydro will be bringing in additional crews to help restore power from Prince George and the Lower Mainland over the next two days.
The power outages are concentrated in the North Peace, Hudson’s Hope and Chetwynd.
A strong thunderstorm moved through the region Wednesday night with strong winds and a large amount of lightning. Some early reports suggest the storm knocked down over a dozen power poles along the Alaska Highway past Mile 54.
Visit www.bchydro.com/outages for updates on the power outage in your area.
This is a developing story, and we will share updates as information becomes available.
