Over 50,000 Hydro customers lose power in lightning storm
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KAMLOOPS — Over 50,000 B.C. Hydro customers lost their power last night in the Thompson/Shuswap area as a major summer thunderstorm hit the area.
It appears lightning may have started a chain of reactions that hit power grids throughout the area. Fortunately, just one lightning strike in our area that was quickly put out, mostly by the rain that accompanied the lightning.
Acting KFR Platoon Captain Chris Burnham says the strike was in the Batchelor Hills area. He says a full complement of resources were called in just in case, but rain had pretty much put out the blaze by the time they had arrived.
But there were plenty of other things going on while crews were out. He says the power outage trapped three people in elevators in various locations, all at the same time, so crews had to respond to those. And Burnham says there were a couple of rollovers on the Coquihalla Highway as well. No idea what caused the accidents, but it may have been the rain. The rescue truck had to be called in to extricate people from the vehicles, but Burnham says at first glance, it doesn’t appear the injuries were life-threatening. Police should have more on that later this morning.
