Update: Cause of Power Outage Determined

Power restored to downtown Vernon and East Hill.

BC Hydro says all customers should have service back by 12:30 pm

BC Hydro now knows what caused the major power outage impacting thousands of customers in the Vernon and BX areas.

Spokesman Dag Sharman says the Vernon outage was caused by lightning hitting Hydro equipment at 6:06 am.

The outage in the BX, which occurred at 6:25 am, was caused by a tree hitting a line.

Sharman says crews are working to restore service, and to witch some customers to another power line.

“Some customers will be back within the next hour (by 11 am), and we expect all of the customers, and the original problem to be repaired, by about 12:30 pm,” Sharman tells Kiss FM.

Sharman says about 29-hundred customers are impacted in the East Hill and downtown areas of Vernon, along with another 13-hundred in the BX.

Update 9 am

The power outage is impacting  many activities around Vernon — but advance voting for the BC election is still proceeding.

District elections Officer Jan Mori says people are still able to vote at the Vernon Rec Centre even though the power is off there.

She says the process is being handled manually, rather than by computers.

People are not being allowed access to other areas of the Rec Complex, for safety s reasons.

It’s the same situation at the Vernon Curling Club where there is a book sale, but people are not being allowed in.

BC Hydro crews continue to work on restoring power to a few areas of Vernon that were knocked out this morning.

Dag Sharman with BC Hydro says about 1500 people lost power in an area of the BX just after 6:30.

” The outage in the BX , it’s a tree on a line, so crews are out there. It’s along Dixon Dam Road.”

They hope to have that restored by 10:30.

The larger outage affects some 2900 customers from Pottery Road through East Hill to parts of the downtown.

At last word, the cause wasn’t known, but it may have been lightning..

There’s no word yet on when power will be back on.