Over 270,000 BC Hydro customers were without power Tuesday night as high-speed winds swept over Vancouver Island and B.C.’s South Coast.
A rapidly deepening low-pressure system, known as a ‘bomb cyclone,’ appeared to have fulfilled its promise of a massive wind storm.
The significant fall storm arrived about 400 kilometres off the west coast of Vancouver Island by the late afternoon. Environment and Climate Change Canada predicted that the winds would peak late Tuesday night.
As of Tuesday night, homes and businesses in the Nanaimo area, Parksville, Qualicum Beach, and other northern municipalities on the Island were most affected by power outages.
In the Lower Mainland, tens of thousands of customers were in the dark Tuesday evening — with Richmond hit hardest early on.
In a statement early Wednesday, BC Hydro shared that it had made “significant progress” restoring power to its customers impacted by the massive storm.
“More than 175,000 customers have been restored — or nearly two-thirds of the more than 272,000 impacted,” Hydro shared before 6:30 a.m.
“However, with strong winds expected to continue today in some areas, particularly on Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast, further outages are expected,” it continued.
1130 NewsRadio meteorologist Michael Kuss said the strongest of the winds, as expected, stayed to the west of Vancouver Island. Some of the buoys out over the water recorded winds topping 100 km/hr, while on share, winds in Victoria topped 76 km/hr.
“But they were even that strong at YVR, Vancouver Airport, 78 kilometres per hour gusts last evening. Now those winds have tapered, but it will be beyond breezy for the rest of the morning,” Kuss explained.
Kuss added that the storm is now tracking to the north and is currently weakening. “So the warnings, they’ve now been lifted, although it will still be quite breezy. Not as stormy as it was last evening through the early part of the overnight.”
BC Hydro explained that the majority of the 95,000 customers still without power as they woke up on Wednesday were on Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands, with 5,000 around the Lower Mainland and Sunshine Coast.
“Drought-damaged trees and branches came down on electrical equipment during the windstorm causing significant damage. BC Hydro had all available BC Hydro crews and contractor crews working overnight to restore power, and that work will continue today,” Hydro said.
“Crews are busy replacing power lines, poles and other equipment to get as many customers restored as quickly as possible, but have encountered access challenges as a result of the heavy debris on some roads as well as areas where the wind was too strong overnight to complete the work safely,” it said.
South of the border, about 94,000 customers were at one point without power in western Washington as strong winds ramped up and snow fell in the Cascade Mountain passes Tuesday evening. More than 12,000 customers had lost power in Oregon, according to poweroutage.us.
BC Hydro said it prepares for storm season and weather-related power outages year round — and this storm was no exception.
Spokesperson Kevin Aquino said Tuesday that BC Hydro was ensuring that crews were positioned in the right places with the right equipment.
“We have a team of in-house meteorologists that have been tracking this weather system quite closely, and that definitely enabled us to ramp up our BC Hydro crews, contract our crews, and call centre agents,” said Aquino.
“So, if the lights do go out, we’re ready to respond.”
Aquino shared that it’s difficult to predict where damage was going take place and encouraged all customers to be prepared with an emergency kit with supplies to last at least 72 hours.
Hydro said that it is receiving reports of downed power lines.
“A downed power line is an emergency. Call 911 and stay at least 10 metres back. BC Hydro crews will work with first responders to make the area safe,” Hydro explained.
“Crews will continue to work around the clock until all customers are restored. BC Hydro wants to thank its customers for their patience, and it will continue to provide updated estimates for power restoration as they become available at bchydro.com/outages.”
Listen live to 1130 NewsRadio Vancouver every 10 minutes on the ones for weather updates. You can also follow @NewsRadioVAN and and Meteorologist Michael Kuss on X and subscribe to breaking news alerts sent directly to your inbox.
source: CityNews photo:BC Hydro Image
