Power restored after suspected lightning strike leaves 120,000 northern B.C. residents in the dark
Power restored for most customers by early Thursday morning
Power has been restored to more than 120,000 residents in northern and central British Columbia after a suspected lightning strike caused widespread power outages Wednesday night.
According to B.C. Hydro, the outages began at about 9:30 p.m. and quickly spread across the region. More than 120,000 residents were without power at one point.
Hydro said a lightning strike was suspected to have caused the transmission outage and led to the massive power loss.
Communities including Vanderhoof, Smithers, Fort St John, Dawson Creek, Chetwynd, Hudsons Hope, Houston and Burns Lake were impacted.
Large outages in northern BC tonight are caused by a suspected lightning strike. Crews are beginning restoration efforts across the region, working to restore all customers in the next few hours. Most of <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/cityofPG?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#cityofPG</a> has been restored and we expect most customers back by 12:30am.
—@bchydro