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ZOO ZOOM: Two-year-old Abigail Li chases Lola the goat with a brush at the Queen’s Park petting zoo. PHOTO JENNIFER GAUTHIER
City reviewing protocols in wake of power outage Theresa McManus tmcmanus@newwestrecord.ca
The City of New Westminster is reviewing its communications protocols after some residents and businesses were left without power for nearly 24 hours. The city started receiving calls about a power outage around 7:30 p.m. on May 29.While the city was able to restore power to about 90 per cent of the residences and businesses hit by the outage in parts of the Glenbrook, Queen’s Park and Massey-Victory Heights neighbourhoods before midnight,
some properties around McBride Boulevard and Eighth Avenue were without power until about 6:30 p.m. the following day. Rod Carle, general manager of the electrical utility, said crews were able to determine on May 30 that the cause of the power outage was a burnt splice to an aging cable near the bottom of a manhole. Once the source was confirmed, crews got to work. “As always, we try our best,” Carle said. “We are trying the most-efficient, cost-effective way of getting it back on in a safe manner.The big thing for us is safety,
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particularly in underground cable.” Carle said crews have to follow WorkSafeBC safety protocols when working with electricity. “The key message for me is we have a safety protocol we have to follow. It’s about keeping our employees and our linemen and our servicemen safe,” he said. “We are going to do whatever we can to make sure that happens.” During the power outage, some residents voiced concerns on social media about a lack of communication from the city about when power would be restored.
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“We are trying to get informaton out quicker,” he said. “Our priority is to try and get the power back on.The communication group has indicated if we give them the first heads up they will take it from there.” The electrical department will also be working with the IT department to address challenges faced by people calling to report power outages. “They are going to look into where the phone issues are.We end up getting overload,” Carle said. “We are hoping to have some answers there.”
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One resident took to Twitter to suggest the city should have a recorded message on its after-hours outage line to let people know the city is aware of the outage. She said residents were left in the dark on two counts – with no lights and no information about whether the city was aware of the issue. Carle met with the city’s communications and IT staff on Tuesday to discuss potential changes to existing protocols. Plans are afoot to improve the way information is communicated to residents and businesses via social media.
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