A damaged BC Hydro pole in the Shuswap (Photo via BC Hydro)
BC Hydro is bringing ramping up its efforts to restore power to thousands of customers in the north Shuswap.
Despite an increase in fire activity and initial suggestions that work repairing downed power poles and lines – damaged by the Bush Creek East wildfire – was suspended over the weekend, spokesperson Susan Edgell confirms to RadioNL that efforts to restore power did continue.
“Our crews were in the field all weekend, doing as much as they could to prepare for the re-energizing that should be coming in the coming weeks,” said Edgell.
“We take our direction from the BC Wildfire Service, so if there’s a hotspot that’s established itself within the fire, then we move around and work around that hotspot.”
Edgell says around 50 Hydro personnel were working to rebuild roughly 20 kilometres worth of downed poles and lines along the north side of Shuswap Lake over the weekend, she says another 75 personnel are being brought in starting Monday.
“Today (Monday) is kind of a big day out at the Shuswap because we now have an area set aside to bring all of our materials in, our poles all the electrification material, and that’s based out of Little Shuswap Lake,” she said.
“So we have 75 new crews coming in to help bolster the crews that are already there and the big work is starting to be seen and can be felt throughout the area.”
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Around 3,000 Hydro customers on the north shore of Shuswap Lake, as well as around Adams Lake, have been without power since August 18.
Edgell says over the past 10 days, damage assessment has been ongoing, noting they are now in the final stages of assessing how much damage the Bush Creek East wildfire has done.
“Critical infrastructure is the most important thing but we can’t light anything up until there are poles in the ground, so that’s what our crews are focusing on today (Monday) and going into the rest of the week.”
She says work on Monday will occur along the Squilax Bridge area, replacing the poles that were burnt down
“Then that huge straight stretch that everybody knows about once you cross over the bridge and head into the north Shuswap, and then right down to Holding Roads; so that area today (Monday) is where a lot of the focus is in terms of getting those poles in the ground to re-electrify.”
While Edgell says it is difficult to say when power will be restored, she does say there will be small wins, with electrifying neighborhoods one at a time.
