Power was out for thousands in the greater Duncan area after a vehicle took out a power pole near the RBC on Trunk Road Friday morning.
The lights went out just after 10:15 a.m. on Friday, March 28 and BC Hydro crews arrived at the scene by 11:35 a.m. The power was restored roughly 90 minutes later.
The affected pole carried power to 2,998 customers in downtown Duncan, and south of Duncan, but the bulk of the outages were east of the Trans-Canada Highway, towards but not quite to The Properties in Maple Bay and along much of Tzouhalem Road toward the north side of Cowichan Bay.
Cowichan Tribes put out a notice at 11 a.m. that the power disruption had affected their communications and human resources departments as well as their Mel Shu Um job readiness program.
Medix EMS alerted customers they were closed for the day.
"Our Cowichan retail location and head office are closed for the day due to a power outage," said the company on social media. "Unfortunately, our generator gets installed next month, so we are unable to assist with anyone's needs.
BC Hydro spokesperson Ted Olynyk confirmed a motor vehicle incident is to blame but he was unsure as to whether crews would need to replace the power pole.
"I heard there were no lines down so that's a good thing,"he said.
A crew will be heading to an outage affecting 2,998 customers in #DuncanBC and #NorthCowichan. They’ll share updates here: https://t.co/DwCmB3iEfB pic.twitter.com/sZ4pNsxIut
— BC Hydro (@bchydro) March 28, 2025
