UPDATE: Power restored for thousands of people in the Shuswap after cross arm failure

Thousands of B.C. Hydro customers were left in the dark Sunday afternoon after a rotten cross arm on top of a power pole cause multiple transmission circuit failures in the Shuswap.

The outages reported in the Pritchard, Chase, Tappen and Sorrento areas along the Trans-Canada Highway, were caused by a transmission circuit failure, according to B.C. Hydro’s outage map.

Dave Cooper, with B.C. Hydro's community relations team, said a cross arm at the top of a hydro pole was rotting and failed, causing a line to come down and end up in a hay field at 50 Street Northwest and 10 Avenue in Salmon Arm.

A cross arm is two parallel poles that run at the top of a pole that hold B.C. Hydro equipment in place. They're typically wooden and do deteriorate over time, Cooper said.

"We ended up losing three substations out of this deal, Salmon Arm, Chase and Sorrento's," he said. Losing Salmon Arm's substation caused a power outage for 13,000 people, losing Sorrento and Chase's caused an outage for 12,500 homes, Cooper said.

The outages have been restored.

More information can be found on B.C. Hydro's outage map.

– This story was updated a 1:38 p.m. as power has been restored.

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