Thousands without power in Merritt and the North Shuswap Friday morning

BC Hydro says 1,707 customers in an area covering nearly half of Merritt, Aspen Grove and Brookmere have been without power since around 5:30 a.m. Friday.

BC Hydro states the outage is due to equipment failure. Crews are on site but there’s no estimated time for power to be restored.

Meantime, power for customers east of Tappen is estimated to be restored at around 9:30 a.m. Friday.

BC Hydro says 472 customers near Lee Creek and 2,845 customers in Scotch Creek, Celista, Magna Bay and Anglemont have been without power since 4 a.m. Friday. Further south, 756 customers east of Tappen have been without power since around 4:45 a.m.

Crews are on site in the North Shuswap and power is expected to be restored at around 8:30 a.m. However, crews are still en route to the outage east of Tappen.

All three outage causes are still under investigation.