The Christmas lights adorning the B.C. legislature seemed to shine brighter Thursday night as the rest of the city plunged into darkness — the result of a power outage affecting 54,000 customers.
The lights went out across Victoria, Oak Bay and Saanich at 4:36 p.m. and returned for most of the region by 6 p.m.
For most customers the lights went out and stayed out, for others the power returned only to cut out again, and for others lights teasingly flickered on and off.
“We had people back up with power faster than we anticipated,” said Ted Olynyk, spokesman for B.C. Hydro.
The B.C. legislature shone and Royal Jubilee Hospital’s emergency department kept admitting patients thanks to backup generators.
Alternative energy sources didn’t stop all headaches, however, as the Victoria Police Department, for example, struggled during the outage with computers that shut down.
With traffic and streetlights out, it wasn’t long before vehicles and buses — treating all intersections as four-way stops — were in gridlock and delayed. Police sirens could be heard throughout the core but no crashes were reported as a result of the power outage.
The cause of the power loss was traced back to the Horsey substation located near the Times Colonist building at 2621 Douglas St., Olynyk said.
Hydro crews said the problem was with the substation’s protection and control circuit equipment — but he quipped that “CSI-type” analysis would now have to be done to get to the root of the technical malfunction.
B.C. NDP communications officer Jen Jones tweeted that she soldiered on and cooked dinner through the power outage thanks to her gas stove. The menu consisted of jerk chicken, collards, quinoa and squash.
City of Victoria spokeswoman Katie Hamilton said all city buildings were without power and most traffic lights were out.
Sheriffs, flashlights in hand, responded quickly at the Victoria courthouse, checking on prisoners and doing a security sweep of the darkened six-floor building.
Ken Kelly of the Downtown Victoria Business Association said everyone did their best under the circumstances to deal with the outage. The barber shop across the street from his office appeared to be cutting hair by flashlight, he said.
Just after 5 p.m., the lights flickered on in Centennial Square and some other areas of downtown Victoria.
“You could hear an audible ‘yay’ when the lights came back on,” Kelly said.
But the most audible cheer might have been from the event co-ordinator of the B.C. Cancer Foundation’s Jingle Mingle soirée in the Fairmont Empress hotel ballroom.
The 300-guest charity cocktail party and silent auction raises money for cancer research.
“We were very, very relieved,” said foundation spokeswoman Monica Visal.
The good cheer and beer were also flowing at the Irish Times pub on Government Street throughout the outage. Only the pub’s food service was temporarily affected.
At the Bay Centre, the backup generator was on in the mall, but individual stores were in the dark. Store clerks ushered customers out and locked their doors to prevent thefts.
Crystal Pool was closed for the remainder of the night and is scheduled to reopen today.
— With files from Times Colonist staff
