Low-income seniors who live in the Kingsway Court highrise at 5560 Inman Ave. were without power for 12 hours on Monday while B.C. Hydro did some maintenance work.
Because it is a seniors' residence, there were more challenges with this situation than with other buildings, according to Jaco Notebloom, who sits on the board for the 10-storey residence.
"It's dealing with that vulnerable segment of the market," he said in an interview with the NOW on Friday. "Because the building is restrictive in access, because there's no power, and you've got vulnerable people, it becomes a bit of an issue."
The board tried to get generators to provide electricity for the day, but it would cost about $8,000 to have a generator keep one elevator going," Notebloom said.
He was concerned that the food in residents' fridges and freezers could be affected, but also, medicine that has to be refrigerated.
There are 113 suites in total, but Notebloom was most worried about 20 to 30 particularly vulnerable residents, such as those with mobility and health issues.
There were notices posted in the building about the outage, but some residents can't read English, he said.
The day went reasonably well, he said in a followup email. Many of the seniors went away for the day, while others spent the time in the common room or in their suites.
There was a small generator on hand to power emergency lighting in the hallways, he said.
The elevators were locked down at 7: 55 a.m., he said, and power was restored at 8 p.m., with systems back to normal by 9 p.m.
While it was an inconvenience, Notebloom suggested it was better than facing an outage in the winter.
"It was not convenient, but rather the interruption in summer rather than a big switch failure in February when we all need max electricity to keep warm," he wrote.
B.C. Hydro was replacing switchgear in the building, according to Simi Heer, spokesperson for the company, who said it is a complicated process.
"It's not work you can stop in between," she explained on Friday. "If you did that, everyone would be without power until we come back to resume it."
B.C. Hydro was also doing work on underground cables and overhead equipment simultaneously, to prevent future outages, she added.
"I fully understand that 12 hours can seem like a significant amount of time," Heer said. "But it's something that must be done, and the circuit absolutely has to be deenergized for that work to be completed, for it to be safe for crews to do."
Kingsway Court was given two weeks' notice about the outage, she said.
B.C. Hydro is replacing switchgear throughout the province because the equipment is old and near end-of-life, Heer said.
