An emergency repair left much of Lake Cowichan, including the downtown area, in the dark, the afternoon of Monday, May 2.
The outage lasted for only a half hour, affecting most of the town’s businesses.
Although it was a planned outage, BC Hydro spokesperson Karla Louwers said that there wasn’t enough time to forewarn BC Hydro users.
“A rotten cross arm collapsed slightly,” she said, adding that the incident took place on South Shore Road, near Lakeview Avenue.
“We always try to warn our customers when there is a planned outage.”
Speed of power recovery took priority over warning people this time around, she said, classifying it as an “emergency repair.”
“At times it’s just getting the work done as quickly as possible,” she said.
In instances where there’s a planned outage for all of Lake Cowichan, BC Hydro recommends at least two weeks of warning, via radio and newspaper advertisements.
In situations where only a portion of Lake Cowichan will be affected, a minimum of five days’ warning is recommended.
In emergency repair situations, whenever possible, BC Hydro employees go door to door to warn people of the upcoming outage. Businesses take priority.