Chatham-Kent officials are preparing for a town-wide power outage in Tilbury and surrounding rural areas on Oct. 6.
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The outage, scheduled for 7 am to 2 pm that day, is necessary to perform system upgrades, said Tomo Matesic, Entegrus’ vice-president of engineering and operations.
“It is an outage that will be town-wide,” he said during the non-agenda portion of Monday’s council meeting. “Hydro One has informed that they’re doing work on the transmission lines that feed the station that serves the town of Tilbury.”
A total of 2,308 customers will be impacted.
Matesic said Entegrus has been informing residents and businesses so they can make appropriate plans.
A rain date is scheduled for Oct. 20, with the same times.
Allison Phillipps, Chatham-Kent’s emergency management co-ordinator, said the municipality has been working with the utility on communication efforts, as well as involving police, fire and EMS in the planning.
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“Economic development will be going door-to-door to businesses at the end of the week to provide them with some information as well,” she said.
Phillipps said there is a list of vulnerable residents who use medical equipment connecting on power. She said officials will ensure those individuals are prepared.
“We’re also reaching out to the three retirement homes in Tilbury,” she said, adding there is the potential to have crews on site that day.
West Kent Coun. Lauren Anderson acknowledged some people may be inconvenienced, but believes the organizations are doing everything they can to help mitigate the situation.
“I listen to the experts, and if they’re saying this is what’s needed, that’s definitely something that I’m willing to support to get the work done,” she said after the meeting.
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Anderson added she’s confident in the backup systems that the retirement homes have in place, given they deal with power outages from time to time.
“Obviously they have the time right now to prepare for it to be a bit longer,” she said.
Customers are being notified by the Entegrus interactive voice calling system. Those who do not receive a call are asked to email [email protected] with updated contact information.
To receive these notifications vis text, visit https://www.entegrus.com/SMS
For more information on planning for an extended outage, visit https://www.entegrus.com/extendedoutage
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