Second power outage in three days hits Kelowna

POWER OUT ALL DAY FOR A CHUNK OF DOWNTOWN

KELOWNA – Fortis B.C. says it has restored power to a swath of downtown Kelowna, although customers could still experience intermittent outages.

According to Fortis’s Twitter feed, the outage began early this morning and extended from Harvey Avenue to Clement Avenue and from Water Street to Gordon Drive.

However, the Kelowna Family Y in Rutland is reporting its power went out at the same time this morning, forcing it to shut the pool for the day. The facility in Rutland is well outside the outage area reported by Fortis.

A Kelowna Family Y spokesperson in a press release said the electrical surge at 8:10 a.m. damaged some electrical components and blew out some lights.

The building was evacuated as a precaution and full power was restored around 11 a.m. although the pool remains closed.

A media spokesperson for Fortis did not immediately respond to a request for an interview. No mention was made of the suspected cause of the power outage.

An earlier power outage on Sunday, July 3 left some 20,000 customers without power in Kelowna in the Hollywood Road and Saucier Road area around 7 p.m.


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John McDonald

John began life as a journalist through the Other Press, the independent student newspaper for Douglas College in New Westminster. The fluid nature of student journalism meant he was soon running the place, learning on the fly how to publish a newspaper.

It wasn’t until he moved to Kelowna he broke into the mainstream media, working for Okanagan Sunday, then the Kelowna Daily Courier and Okanagan Saturday doing news graphics and page layout. He carried on with the Kelowna Capital News, covering health and education while also working on special projects, including the design and launch of a mass market daily newspaper. After 12 years there, John rejoined the Kelowna Daily Courier as editor of the Westside Weekly, directing news coverage as the Westside became West Kelowna.

But digital media beckoned and John joined Kelowna.com as assistant editor and reporter, riding the start-up as it at first soared then went down in flames. Now John is turning dirt as city hall reporter for iNFOnews.ca where he brings his long experience to bear on the civic issues of the day.

If you have a story you think people should know about, email John at jmcdonald@infonews.ca

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