A little bit of background for the newer families in the village. This morning was a bit of an exception in that it took longer for the Fortis page to show our outage on the map. It was also annoying that several residents calling at different times were told that they were the first to report it.
When outages have happened at night, the person answering seems to know more than the day time call centre. They appreciate whatever info you can give them.
The Telus cell tower on McKinney does not have adequate back up power supply, so you will lose cell service fairly quickly, as well as Telus internet.
If the base area loses power, China Creek Internet loses power to connect from McKinney to the village. If the base area does not lose power, I can usually connect to China Creek with my power supply back up, as the installation at the top of the mountain has more back-up power.
Get to know your neighbours. There are several full time residents (including me) who do have a land line that works when the power is out.
Winter power outages up here generally last about 5 hours. There are a few of us who drive/call around to see if the outage is localized or widespread. If you see a downed power line, don't go anywhere near it.
I fear that we are in for more outages this winter. The area where the trees came down on the lines has seen more trees fail in the last couple of years. I don't have the info at the moment as to whether the proposed FESBC project may deal with some of that this summer.
Fortis took a different approach in the village this summer - not removing danger trees that threaten the main lines, and just tipping branches of even dead trees close to their lines.
The tree situation in the village has gone beyond FireSmart. Liability and power have to be factored in. Unfortunately one owner in our village has gone to great lengths to try and convince Fortis to attend to a tree that could take out a transformer if it goes. They have been unsuccessful convincing Fortis.
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