Winds, lightning cause power outages for Merritt and Kamloops

Heavy snowfall on the Coquihalla had the province recommending people avoid the highway earlier today and this afternoon things got worse for Merritt residents when lightning caused a power outage to thousands of customers.

B.C. Hydro spokesperson Dag Sharman says windstorms such as we have seen over the last couple of days tend to cause lots of small outages, with less than 150 customers currently affected in Kamloops. Merritt is a whole other situation though, with more than 3,200 customers affected by what Sharman says is an outage caused by lightning.

Environment Canada is calling for another 5-10 centimetres of snow in the higher elevations of the Coquihalla and a 40 per cent chance of precipitation in Merritt as the snow level is expected to lower into the valley bottom overnight.

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