Listen Live
Listen Live

BC Hydro, Environment Canada breakdown power outage in Northern BC

Power has been restored to all Northern BC homes following Wednesday night’s massive power outage.

BC Hydro Spokesperson, Bob Gammer spoke with Vista Radio.

“We had everything back on, every customer in the north by 11:30 pm last night, it was quite the massive outage with over 120,000 customers and from start, to finish it lasted about two and a half hours.”

Gammer adds the crown corporation is still looking into the lightning strike that caused the lights to go out for much of the region.

“We don’t know where the lightning hit but it did cause an outage, knocking out key equipment and that is why we saw this widespread blackout, the important thing was to slowly restore power.”

Environment Canada Meteorologist, Gregg Walters confirmed there were lightning strikes in the area.

“We had some lightning developing in the late afternoon and early evening with a pretty good swath of lightning for the area basically to the west of Prince George and also some lightning down in the Cariboo near Quesnel.”

“There is still enough heat from the late summer to generate some thunderstorm activity and those will generally occur into the late afternoon and early evening but it doesn’t look like anything was severe in terms of thunderstorms.”

Affected communities included Prince George, Vanderhoof, Smithers, Houston and Burns Lake.

Something going on in the Prince George area you think people should know about?
Send us a news tip by emailing [email protected].

Brendan Pawliw
Brendan Pawliw
Since moving to Prince George in 2015, Brendan has covered local sports including the WHL’s Prince George Cougars, Prince George Spruce Kings, UNBC Timberwolves, Cariboo Cougars AAA, and Northern Capitals U18 female hockey teams. Career highlights include play-by-play during the Spruce Kings' BCHL championship runs in 2018 and 2019, including the Doyle Cup win. He also covered the 2019 National Junior A Championship, the 2017 Telus Cup, the 2022 World Women’s Curling Championship, and the 2022 BC Summer Games. Brendan is the news voice on 94.3 The Goat and Country 97 FM, reporting on crime, real estate, labour, and environmental issues. Outside of work, he officiates box lacrosse and fastball, sits on the Prince George Sports Hall of Fame board, and co-hosts the Hockey North podcast.

Continue Reading

cjci Now playing play

cirx Now playing play

- Advertisement -

Related Articles

- Advertisement -

Latest News

Cariboo Hockey weekend recap; Monday, October 20th

The U18 Cougars are 4-3-1 on the season, good enough for third in the eight-team league. Cariboo is off to the RINK Tournament in Vernon.

Gizowski’s hot start lands him Player of the Week accolades

Next up, the Cougars host the Medicine Hat Tigers (7-4-0-0) Wednesday, October 22 (7 p.m. PT) at the CN Centre.

Downtown security camera program takes major step forward

The system will monitor public spaces including roads, alleyways, and sidewalks—areas where activity is visible to the general public.Signage will be placed throughout the zone to ensure everyone is aware of the monitored areas and camera locations.

City provides update regarding status of garbage collecting services

During this strike action, service hours at the landfill are Tuesday to Saturday: 9am – 5pm. This change will impact the garbage zone collection schedule.

Union pulls out of landfill services for one day amid Regional District worker strike

In addition, as of 8:45 am, union members withdraw their services from the following Regional District of Fraser-Fort George Transfer Stations and Landfills for one day. 
- Advertisement -