Nearly 12,000 Thompson, North Okanagan homes still without power as BC Hydro tries to catch up

Poor weather and treacherous road conditions have hampered BC Hydro efforts to restore power outages in the North Okanagan, Thompson and Shuswap areas over the past couple of days.

BC Hydro reports this morning they have restored power to the “vast majority of customers affected by the snowstorm on Tuesday.”

BC Hydro is currently working to restore 73 power outages affecting 2,664 customers in the Okanagan-Kootenay region, and 195 outages affecting 11,153 customers in the Thompson-Shuswap.

Crews are expected to be working throughout today on remaining repairs in hard-to-access areas in the Vernon, Salmon Arm and Kamloops areas.

A second weather system is expected to hit the region tonight, bringing rain, snow and wind to the region.

Around 138,585 customers affected by the power outages have had power restored since Tuesday,  Dec. 31 when heavy snow fell on the region.

A report on BC Hydro’s restoration progress can be viewed at this website.

The power outages have also affected operations at Vernon’s Silver Star Mountain Resort.  The resort posted a message on social media this morning advising the closure of the Gondola, mini-sleds, and Main Terrain Park due to overnight power outages.

The ski resort said several trees were also down on alpine and cross-country trails, advising caution when on runs today.

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