Hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses were without power Wednesday morning after storms blew wind and rain through the Lower Mainland.
Power is slowly being restored in sections of Abbotsford, Burnaby, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, New Westminster, Port Moody, Pitt Meadows, Maple Ridge, Surrey, Richmond, Langley, Delta, North and West Vancouver, and Vancouver.
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO 1130 NEWSRADIO VANCOUVER LIVE!The utility is also dealing with outages in the Upper Fraser Valley, Vancouver Island, the Sunshine Coast and the Gulf Islands.
Spokesperson Kevin Aquino says the the number is decreasing as crews respond, but at its peak, the storm took out power for roughly 120,000 customers.
“Our crews have been working around the clock and we have all hands on deck and hopes to get customers back up as soon as possible,” Aquino told 1130 NewsRadio Wednesday morning.
As of 6 a.m., BC Hydro says the hardest hit areas were:
- Surrey: 18,4000 customers without power
- Vancouver: 11,200 customers without power
- Port Coquitlam: 12,500 customers without power
- Burnaby: 11,700 customers without power
- Maple Ridge: 11,200 customers without power
- North Vancouver: 10,000 customers without power
As of 11:30 a.m., fewer than 50,000 properties were without power, including:
- Vancouver with 8,200 customers without power
- Burnaby with 7,200 customers without power
- Port Coquitlam with 4,900 customers without power
“We do prepare for storm season year-round, and our crews can activate storm-response plans at a moment’s notice,” said Aquino.
He says the company has to prioritize the safety of the public and its crews.
“Priority goes to safety calls where, potentially, live wires are down across roads and near homes, as well as restoring circuits to critical services like hospitals.”
Aquino says many of the outages were likely the result of climate change.
“It’s important to note that over the past few years, the province has experienced a historic drought. So we do have some drought-weakened and damaged trees on the system that are more susceptible to break and snap, and come into contact with our electrical infrastructure,” he explained.”
A complete list and map of the outages is available on the BC Hydro website.
1130 NewsRadio Meteorologist Michael Kuss says, fortunately, the worst of the latest storm is over.
“The good news is the winds are backing off, so it’s safer for the crews to be out there,” said Kuss.
“We’re expecting to see daytime temperatures up to about 9 degrees, with the winds no stronger than about 20 to 30 kilometres per hour through the afternoon.”
The power outages also affect traffic lights in many areas. Drivers are reminded to use four-way stop procedures when approaching unpowered intersections, and beware of treefall, pooling water, and debris on the road.
Without lights, some schools across Metro Vancouver and the rest of B.C. were forced to cancel classes for the day, including all schools in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows as well as some in Langley, Abbotsford, Kootenay-Columbia and Kootenay Lake.
Strong winds remain in the forecast for the southern Interior, including the Thompson, Cariboo, Okanagan, Shuswap, Chilcotin, Similkameen and Kootenay regions.
Environment Canada says the wind storm comes on the heels of a cold front that moved through the area, bringing heavy rain and major flood warnings in the Fraser Valley.
The agency says the same system carried heavy rainfall in parts of the Lower Mainland, with Coquitlam getting more than 70 millimetres, Rocky Point Park in Port Moody receiving almost 64 millimetres and Maple Ridge, Agassiz, Burnaby, and Chilliwack all reporting in excess of 50 millimetres of rain.
Environment Canada says the weather woes continue in the Interior, where a number of highways have been affected by heavy snowfall or winter storm conditions.
Winter storm warnings have been posted for Highway 1 from Sicamous to Golden and Highway 3 from Grand Forks to Creston where up to 30 centimetres of snow is expected.
The DriveBC information system says the Coquihalla Highway from Hope to Merritt has been closed due to a vehicle incident, while Highway 3 from Hope to Princeton remains closed because of damage from last week’s rainstorms.
Both stretches of highways are also under snowfall warnings, where another 15 centimetres of snow is expected on top of the 30 centimetres that has already fallen.
—With files from The Canadian Press