Power has been restored for 762 customers, including the Smithers Regional Airport, on a stretch of Hwy 16 to near Witset.
BC Hydro reported the cause of the outage was a traffic accident and that a crew was on-site within minutes of the reported outage at 12:08.
Airport manager Rob Blackburn said backup generators immediately kicked in and the airport would have been able to operate for 50 hours on backup power.
Hydro had estimated 2 p.m. for restoration of power, but had it up again by approximately 1:30.
Smithers RCMP are investigating.
More to come.
deb.meissner@interior-news.com
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