Strong winds, lightening blamed for power outages in Fort St. John [Video]

FORT ST. JOHN –A stretch of downtown Fort St. John was without power last night after strong winds left several businesses in the dark.

According to Environment Canada, wind gusts reached speeds of 87 kilometres an hour.

Shortly after 6:00 p.m., the North Peace Leisure Pool and businesses in the PC Plaza were forced to close due to the outages, impacting the area south of 100th Street.

BC Hydro listed the official cause as lightning, confirming that a total of 141 customers were affected. Crews responded quickly, restoring power by 9:30 p.m.

The utility also reported downed trees across wires, which caused several other outages across the city and in Dawson Creek.

Work remains ongoing to restore power to a handful of customers across the Peace Region.