Horsefly Road has been reduced to one lane alternating traffic due to downed hydro lines following heavy winds. (Drive BC map Screenshot)
The Cariboo saw more than 5,000 outages in the last 24 hours after a wind storm swept through the region on Thursday, Oct. 23.
Power has been restored to more than 2,500 customers who lost power on Oct. 23 near Williams Lake, while 185 customers along Spokin Lake Road between Dugan Lake and Miocene continue to be without power since 2:47 p.m. on the day of the storm. Several other customers continue to go without power around Williams Lake, including 28 customers between Soda Creek and McLeese Lake who have had no power since 1:31 p.m. on Oct. 23 when a tree fell across wires.
Meanwhile in Quesnel, 369 customers north of Dragon Lake and 178 south of Dragon Lake are without power, both outages caused by trees downed across wires. At least 50 more customers are without power in and around Quesnel, one since 1 p.m. yesterday with no crews yet assigned as of Friday morning. Other outages in the area occured overnight and in the early hours of the morning.
Elsewhere in the Cariboo, the cause of an outage affecting 50 customers along the southern perimeter of Mahood Lake, about 80 kilometres northeast of 100 Mile House, is under investigation. Another 280 customers in 100 Mile House lost power after midnight on Oct. 24, while 645 other recent outages in the area have been restored.
Another 21 customers northeast of Quesnel Forks have been without power since 5:47 p.m. yesterday, and 18 customers near Likely lost power overnight.
Of the Cariboo outages active at the time of publication, 240 were directly attributed to the wind storm, while 873 were due to fallen trees and eight due to a downed pole. Only four of the outages which have been restored are attributed to the wind storm, while 4,213 are due to trees falling across wires.
Horesfly Road is reduced to single lane alternating traffic between Rose Drive and Branch Drive due to downed hydro lines.
Environment Canada issued a wind warning on Wednesday, Oct. 22, noting wind gusts could reach up to 90 kilometres per hour. The system made its way down across central B.C. on Thursday, also causing power outages for Prince George, Fort St. James, Burns Lake, Vanderhoof and Smithers.