UPDATE: BC Hydro “winning the battle” on 10,000 outages in Northern BC

UPDATE:

BC Hydro has restored power to more than half of the 10,000 customers who had lost it in the North Central region earlier today.

“We’re starting to win the battle, we had 110, 000 customers out across the province so far and we’ve restored 57,000,” said Gammer.

He said Prince George has just a single customer left (as of 3:30 p.m.), Quesnel has 59 out, Smithers has 150, Vanderhoof is 11, Williams Lake is zero out.

“In Northern BC, 100 Mile all the way north, in that area we are down to roughly 4700 people out of power, down from 10,000 this morning.”

Original story (10:30 a.m.):

Strong winds have caused mass outages across the Central Interior region today. 

Spokesperson with BC Hydro, Bob Gammer, said 500 customers in the Prince George area have been affected. 

“Wind has come up again just like it did earlier this week and a storm has swept across the North-Central Interior and the Cariboo region. So the wind is forcing trees into contact with power lines whether it’s just a momentary contact like a tree branch, or it could be a tree that’s actually blown over and of course from the storm earlier this week some of those trees that are falling over today could likely have been weakened from the blow from a few days ago.”

“We want to make sure that the public is safe and so we want you to stay back at least ten metres when you see a wire down on the ground. Stay back, assume it’s live and phone 911 first of all to report that,” said Gammer.”We don’t want people to take matters into their own hands, if you see a tree resting on a line, people may want to help us out. People may want to help us out, but don’t touch the tree because it could still be energized.”

As of 10:27 a.m., the estimate for restoration to the 455 people out of power south of Takla Forest Road is cited as 10:00 a.m. Gammer says the estimates on the BC Hydro are fairly accurate but reminds people that they are estimates.