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A winter storm will bring heavy winds to the Okanagan on Friday, which has FortisBC preparing for possible power outages.
“Winter storms in our mountainous service areas often lead to trees falling on power lines, which can cause outages for our customers,” says a release from the company.
FortisBC says restoring service as quickly as possible is always their top priority and they realize the inconvenience an outage can cause to customers.
If you do experience an outage or see a downed power line, you’re asked to call 1-866-436-7847.
While you do that, stay at least 10 metres away from downed power lines.
The power company also offered up some tips to prepare for potential outages:
- Post emergency and utility contact numbers in a central place in the house and store your emergency kit where you can easily find it in the dark.
- Prepare an emergency kit with enough supplies for at least 72 hours and store it in a location you can easily find in the dark.
- Stock up on sleeping bags, blankets and extra clothing for warmth.
- Protect your electronics, such as TVs, cable boxes, PVRs and computers, by plugging them into surge-protecting power bars.
- Try to keep phones charged and conserve your cell phone batteries when a storm is in the forecast.
- Know how to use the manual releases on automated doors.
- Follow @FortisBC on Twitter and check outages.fortisbc.com for updates on outages and crews working in your area.
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