The City of Enderby will undergo a community-wide power outage Saturday, Sept. 24.
BC Hydro announced the power outage will be from 8 a.m. to about 2 p.m. A spokesperson for BC Hydro said it is estimated the outage will last a maximum of six hours.
The outage is due to planned equipment upgrades that BC Hydro is conducting.
BC Hydro told the Morning Star the outage will extend as far north as Mara, stopping short of Mara Lake and Sicamous, and will cover all of Enderby and out to the Kingfisher area by Mabel Lake Resort, as well as south into the Trinity Valley.
There will also be a loss of water service for Grindrod and Mabel Lake water customers from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Tate Bengtson, Enderby’s chief administrative officer, said the city has a response plan designed to keep drinking water and sewer flowing during the outage.
Over the course of the outage, a number of Enderby’s facilities will be affected, including drinking water and sewer, but critical water and sewer components will continue to function in order to maintain supply and storage of treated drinking water and the processing of sanitary sewer flows.
Two factors will have a localized impact on services: high water demand during the outage and rainy weather.
“Either of these scenarios may require us to reprioritize and redeploy a mobile back-up power system to another location to manage through a water or sewer demand peak, which may diminish or interrupt water service to certain neighbourhoods,” the city said in an update on its website.
During the outage, residents are asked to restrict their water use to essential uses only, as this will help the city to maintain service throughout the community.
During the outage, the city will be providing a temporary phone number for public works emergency responses only, via the city’s sewer treatment plant. For public works emergencies, call 250-838-0785 and leave a voicemail. Messages will be automatically transcribed and sent to the city’s response team. General information inquiries about the outage, questions regarding non-City facilities, or inquiries not requiring an immediate response will not be returned until later.
“Please only use (the phone number) for public works emergencies so that it is kept clear for those who may need it,” the city said.
Residents are encouraged to follow BC Hydro’s steps to prepare for an outage, which include building an emergency kit and creating an outage plan.
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