VANCOUVER — Repair crews have made progress restoring electricity to the hundreds of thousands of British Columbia homes that were blacked out during powerful weekend storms, but Environment Canada says snow and wind remain factors.
Snowfall, Arctic outflow and wind warnings remained up Monday for large parts of the southern Interior, north and central coasts, and eastern Vancouver Island.
Kamloops and the north Okanagan, which were blanketed by snow Sunday, braced for up to 15 centimetres Monday, and the weather office issued snowfall warnings of up to 30 centimetres of snow for most Interior mountain passes.
Environment Canada’s snowfall warning for the Malahat Highway on Vancouver Island says conditions there aren’t likely to ease until early Tuesday as a further 10 centimetres is forecast near the summit.
Strong winds continue to buffet parts of coastal B.C. and the central Interior, packing gusts of at least 110 kilometres per hour along the north and central coasts, pushing wind chill factors in Terrace and elsewhere to -20 or lower.
BC Hydro says pockets of customers from Manning Park to the Sunshine Coast and Gulf Islands were still without power Monday, following the weekend windstorm, while hundreds more homes and businesses in northern and central B.C. were awaiting service after downed trees or other issues cut electricity to start the work week.
Source/The Canadian Press
