By Abigail Popple, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, RMG
A power outage affected over 1600 residents throughout Valemount, McBride and Albreda on the evening of April 14th.
Power was cut off at 5:05 p.m. and was restored at 3 a.m., according to BC Hydro’s outage list web page. In an email to The Goat, Hydro spokesperson Susan Edgell said the outage affected the transmission line in the North Thompson and Robson Valleys. Its source was located south of Clearwater, near the Blackpool Trans Mountain pump station.
“The outage affected everyone living along this transmission line, from the outskirts of Kamloops all the way north to Valemount/McBride,” Edgell wrote.
The transmission line south of Clearwater was re-energized at around 9 p.m., according to Edgell. However, rocky and mountainous terrain made it difficult to access damaged infrastructure at the outage source, so it took until early Monday morning to restore power to other communities on the transmission line, she added.
Power was not restored to all of McBride until early Monday morning.
BC Hydro is still uncertain about what caused the outage, according to Edgell. There is a good chance that a fallen tree damaged equipment, she said.
