Semiahmoo power outage lasts 9 hours

A recent power outage that left Semiahmoo residents without electricity for nearly 9 hours was caused by a 12-volt underground cable on Semiahmoo Drive that had a fault in it and damaged two primary cables.

City of Blaine public works director Bernie Ziemianek said the cables were older and could have been stressed from high voltage or had a manufacturing problem.

The public works department responded to the power outage that started around 3 a.m. September 15. By 12:30 p.m., public works was able to switch Semiahmoo residents to another circuit to restore power to homes and the Semiahmoo Resort. Public works was able to switch residents back to their normal feed after repairing the cable on September 17, Ziemianek said.

The power outage impacted about 650 homes in Semiahmoo, Ziemianek estimated.

The last big power outage was caused by a squirrel on Memorial Day, which lasted eight hours and affected about 4,200 Blaine residents. A smaller power outage also occurred in mid-June on the city’s well field line.

Ziemianek said the cables were underground, making it more difficult for public works staff to see and troubleshoot the problem. About 60 percent of Blaine’s cables are underground, especially newly developed areas, he added.

A power outage like the one on September 15 is hard to anticipate, Ziemianek said, adding that public works checks if older cables need to be replaced. Public works can test the cables, but this is often destructive and leaves them in worse shape.