A woman has been charged with impaired driving after she struck a hydro pole, leaving thousands of Kitchener residents without power overnight.

Shortly after 12:30 a.m. Sunday morning Waterloo Regional Police responded to a call regarding a possible impaired driver on Ottawa Street North.

Before arriving on scene, police say the vehicle hit a building in a nearby plaza, and then left the parking lot in the damaged vehicle.

The driver continued towards River Road East, and lost control at the intersection of Holborn Drive, colliding with a hydro pole before coming to rest in a nearby resident’s backyard.

That backyard belonged to Greg Bisch, who says he didn’t hear anything overnight.

“When I woke up at 6 a.m. we had no power,” says Bisch, “but I saw a light shining through my back window and I realized it was from the emergency hydro vehicles.”

Bisch says he didn’t see any cars, but he did notice the electrical pole that had crashed through his backyard fence.

“The width of it was as tall as me,” says Bisch.

“I didn’t get too close,” he added, “I wasn’t sure if there was still electricity running through it. I could tell that the damage was quite extensive.”

Hydro crews worked tirelessly throughout the rainy night to get power restored to the 7,300 residents affected in the Stanley Park and Chicopee areas.

“It was a particularly bad location for us,” says Jerry Vanooteghem, president of Kitchener Wilmot Hydro. “We had two circuits that were affected. In total there were three poles that were broken as a result of the accident.”

Power was restored by 10:30 a.m. Sunday, but Vanooteghem says crews will remain on scene into the night.

“It’s a major accident,” says Vanooteghem. “It’s going to take us at least 24 hours to get the repairs done. It will be a significant cost for sure.”

Bisch is also worried about how much it’ll cost him to fix his fence.

“We only moved here in December,” says Bisch. “This is our first year with this beautiful backyard, and now we’ve got a pole through our fence.”

As a result of the incident, police have charged a 58-year-old Kitchener woman with impaired driving, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, and failure to remain.

Police say no one was injured as a result of the crash.

For Bisch, that’s all that truly matters.

“I’m just really thankful no one’s hurt,” says Bisch. “All of this stuff can be replaced. Everyone’s safe and that’s the important thing.”

With reporting from CTV's Natalie Van Rooy.