FortisBC is advising electric customers in the Okanagan and Kootenay regions of the possibility of electric outages. Environment Canada is forecasting strong winds with heavy snow on Friday evening and into early Saturday morning. Winter storms in our mountainous service areas often lead to trees falling on power lines, which can cause outages for our customers.
Some of the things you can do are:
Post emergency and utility contact numbers in a central place in the house and store your emergency kit where you can easily find it in the dark.
Prepare an emergency kit with enough supplies for at least 72 hours and store it in a location you can easily find in the dark.
Stock up on sleeping bags, blankets and extra clothing for warmth.
Protect your electronics, such as TVs, cable boxes, PVRs and computers, by plugging them into surge-protecting power bars.
Try to keep phones charged and conserve your cell phone batteries when a storm is in the forecast.
Know how to use the manual releases on automated doors.
Follow @FortisBC on Twitter and check outages.fortisbc.com for updates on outages and crews working in your area.
Restoring service as quickly as possible is a top priority for FortisBC, and we recognize that outages inconvenience customers. We appreciate your patience and support while repair and service restoration is underway.
If you experience an outage or see a downed power line, call 1-866-436-7847, option 1. Our crews have the necessary training, equipment and knowledge to deal with the situation safely. Keep at least 10 metres—approximately the length of a school bus—away from any downed lines.
