Power restored for almost everyone after B.C. windstorm

Thousands of British Columbians woke up in dark homes Tuesday after a powerful storm knocked out power across much of the province’s South Coast the previous day.

Responding to the widespread outage, some 250 crews made of up BC Hydro employees and contractors have been working around the clock to restore service, according to the utility.

As of 3 p.m. Tuesday, 7, 500 customers remained without power, down from around 290,000 at the peak of the outages.

“What crews are dealing with now are the more difficult spots, the spots we couldn’t get up to because we needed helicopters yesterday,” BC Hydro spokesperson Mora Scott told CTV News.

“We’re hoping to have the vast majority of customers restored by the end of the day, but there may be small pockets who are without power for another night.”

Scott said crews have had to replace dozens of power lines, poles and other electrical equipment damaged in the storm. The utility noted that drought has weakened trees and made them more prone to falling in windstorms.

Wind gusts exceeded 100 km/h in region, peaking at 107 km/h at Victoria’s Gonzales Point, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada. On the mainland, wind gusts reached 85 km/h in Chilliwack and 77 km/h at the Vancouver International Airport in Richmond.

“It was a pretty significant event, one that required adjustments in both our alerts and forecast until essentially it was upon us,” said Armel Castellan, warning preparedness meteorologist for Environment Canada.

After enduring two major weather events in recent weeks, Castellan says our landscape will be more susceptible, when more storms inevitably hit in the coming weeks and months.

“36 to 48 hours or more of consistent rain, if that occurs, then yeah, we are predisposed to seeing some pretty solid impacts to people’s safety and infrastructure,”

Castellan is encouraging people to take pre cautionary steps like clearing out drains in their neighbourhoods, as well as having emergency kits ready in both their homes and vehicles.