Power is back on for a majority of BC Hydro customers in downtown Kamloops.

BC Hydro says the outage that affected an estimated 1,234 customers – including us at Stingray Kamloops – happened around 2:45 p.m. Monday afternoon.

“It looks like a transformer has blown on Glenfair Drive and then also almost right across from there, at 6th and Munro, a power line has severed completely from the pole and is down on the ground,” Kamloops Fire Chief, Ken Uzeloc, said on NL Newsday.

“As a result of that, it looks like that knocked out power to a section of downtown.”

.@bchydro says outage – which affects 1,234 customers – is due to downed wires with no estimated time when power will be restored.

Updates can be found here: https://t.co/qmlQYG8rjt pic.twitter.com/gLEivYInMd

— Victor Mario Kaisar (@supermario_47) July 17, 2023

Just ahead of the outage there was a windstorm through the city, with wind gusts of 61 km/hr reported at Kamloops Airport.

At its peak, the outage covered much of the downtown core from Victoria Street and First Avenue to Victoria Street and 11th Avenue, south to the Trans Canada Highway into the Sagebrush neighbourhood.

As of publishing, BC Hydro said there were 105 customers without power in the area of Glenfair Drive, south of Columbia Street.

“I don’t have any reports of vehicles hitting poles or anything like that but not sure if the transformer went first and if that might have triggered it or if it something completely related to the weather,” Uzeloc said, noting KFR had also gotten some calls to help rescue people who were stuck in elevators when the power went out.

For the latest details from BC Hydro, go here.