Valley residents may have been battling the chills in late November, not because of illness but due to several power outages.
In McBride, one power outage lasted 15 hours and affected 1100 customers. An additional 400 customers had their power go out for 11 hours that same day.
BC Hydro spokesperson Gene Bryant said the outage was caused by windy stormy weather that caused damage to power lines.
He said 19 separate outages occurred in the Valemount area, the vast majority caused by damage from fallen trees. While the majority of outages lasted no longer than 3-4 hours, the longest outage lasted more than seven hours. This lengthy outage occurred Nov. 26th after a windy storm knocked out power, affecting 38 customers along Highway 16, between noon and 7:30pm.
Several power “bumps” occurred as well over the weekend. Bryant said these can be attributed to the wires touching each other in forceful winds. The “line slap” causes the power to flicker momentarily but not to go out. He said BC Hydro does not monitor how many of these occur as they are quite common and difficult to trace.
He said falling snow can also cause momentary disruptions in power that last just a second or two.
Bryant said it takes longer to repair damaged lines during stormy weather due to worse driving conditions.
