After two days without power, the lights were set to turn back on Thursday night for approximate 40 Rossland residents waiting patiently.
“There is currently 303 meters without power and why I say meters is there are not a lot of people at Red Mountain right now because of the season,” explained Nicole Bogdanovic, FortisBC’s corporate communications advisor.
“There are nine crew members on site making those repairs, and they have so far replaced five of the six poles, so they’re going to continue on the last pole, and then we’ll be restoring the line that came down onto a new pole,” she added.
Winds from heavy storms Tuesday night around 8 p.m. knocked down a number trees in the Kootenay region, impacting electricity service in not only Rossland but Trail, Warfield, Salmo, Castlegar, Ymir, Crawford Bay and Coffee Creek.
FortisBC’s first priority was to attend to critical customers like Rossland’s wastewater treatment plant, which was back online Wednesday afternoon. Power lines in the Red Mountain area were heavily damaged when crews simultaneously repaired the structures in the “less-populated area.”
“I think most people in the region can see that the poles are down, so they’ve been quite understanding what are crews are dealing with,” added Bogdanovic.
