Over 180 people were involved in the restoration work following last week’s windstorm that crippled much of northern BC.
According to BC Hydro, Prince George and Vanderhoof were among the hardest hit communities. Roughly 15-thousand people were left in the dark in Prince George on November 6th.
Manager of Northern Community Relations, Bob Gammer told Vista Radio they didn’t have to deal with too many people doing the recovery work themselves.
“While we did hear about some people taking matters into their own hands with trees and so forth, fortunately that wasn’t too much. We certainly would discourage that at any time, but fortunately no mishaps.”
Gammer stated it was all hands on deck here in Prince George to get the region back up and running.
“We had about 45 crews in total. And then if you include our vegetation contractors—those people who would be cutting down trees—and plus our office administration and management, we had over 180 people just here in Prince George alone looking over that restoration effort.”
“Safety of our crew as they get—our crews—and they get out there and do the work, and they have to watch out for fallen trees and so forth, but also the safety of the public. And making sure that they get the right messages from us about staying safe: don’t drive over top of power lines, don’t touch power lines.”
As a result of the damages, about 50 new power poles were set along with 35 pole-top transformers.
Also affected were customers in 100 Mile House, Williams Lake, Quesnel, Wells, Mackenzie, McBride, Fraser Lake, Fort St James, Burns Lake and Granisle.
The strong winds also disrupted customers in the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island. Neary half a million BC Hydro customers were without power at some point
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