Barriere and area residents experienced a power and phone outage in the very early hours of Tuesday morning, Jan. 17, after a single vehicle traffic accident that involved an Argo Road Maintenance plow truck and a power pole. Fortunately no one was hurt in the incident, which took down the power and phone lines across from the Esso station. Barriere RCMP arrived after the incident and provided traffic control while the sight was cleared and repairs to the lines began.
BC Hydro had the power back on after approximately three to four hours for most of their customers, but TELUS crews worked throughout the day and into the evening, replacing poles and wiring, to get everyone’s telephones back online.
Reports from various residents on the outage varied depending on where they lived. For some folks the lights just flickered and a few clocks had to be reset, for others the power was off from just after midnight on the 17th until 3:30 a.m.; and for others it was after 5 a.m. before power was restored.