Update: By late Friday afternoon, B.C. Hydro had restored power to most areas that went dark during the wind storm. At 4 p.m., it listed 401 customers without power on the north Island, and 344 on the south Island. About 100,000 customer lost power at various times during the storm.
For a list of power outages click here
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Thousands of people lost power Thursday night and into this morning as the first severe wind storm of the fall season hit the Island.
B.C. Hydro said late this morning that "crews continue to work towards restoring outages as a result of last night's damaging winds across Vancouver Island and Lower Mainland as quickly and safely as possible. Individual restoration times will vary as damage is assessed."
Fire departments and B.C. Hydro were busy across Greater Victoria responding to calls about trees falling onto power lines.
About 6,500 customers were without power on the south Island, 14,500 on the north Island, and a total of about 20,000 on the Lower Mainland and Sunshine Coast at 11 p.m., B.C. Hydro said. On the north Island, the Courtenay-Comox area was hit especially hard, with about 10,000 outages at one point.
In Greater Victoria, as of 11 p.m., outages were reported in North Saanich, Sidney, Central Saanich, Saanich, and Oak Bay. The largest cluster of outages was in North Saanich and Central Saanich.
High winds were forecast to continue in Greater Victoria until about 8 a.m. today, blowing from the southwest at 40 km/h and gusting to 70 km/h. Sun and cloud with a chance of showers is in the forecast later in the day, with a northeast wind of 10 to 15 km/h. At 6 a.m., B.C. Hydro was still busy restoring power to thousands of customers on the Island, including about 6,000 on the south Island and 3,400 on the north Island. In Greater Victoria, the largest area without power was in Saanich, with about 2,000 customers affected in Gordon Head and east of Elk Lake.
For Thursday night, Environment Canada had issued a wind warning for Greater Victoria, east and west Vancouver Island, the southern Gulf Islands and the Sunshine Coast. A low pressure system caused southeast winds of 70 kilometres an hour, with gusts of 90, across the region. The wind picked up in the late afternoon and early evening, with the storm peaking between 9 p.m. and midnight.
“This is the first significant wind storm of the season,” Environment Canada said in its warning. “Tree failures and power outages are possible tonight. Fallen leaves and debris could clog storm drains and create localized flooding.”
B.C. Hydro sent its crews home early Thursday afternoon with the expectation they’ll have to be called into work overnight to remove downed trees and restore power.
“For this storm, it’s going to be a major event the way it’s looking. High winds cause havoc to our system,” said B.C. Hydro spokesman Ted Olynyk. “Staff will be called in as needed so we can be prepared for what we're hit with.”
B.C. Hydro's emergency operations centre is up and running.
In the first storm of the season, there’s always a risk that trees dried out over the summer could topple down over power lines. “We’ll never eliminate outages completely but we hope to lessen the impact on our customers,” Olynyk said.
Olynyk suggested people have flashlights and batteries at the ready and cellphones fully charged.
Some Thursday night ferry sailings were delayed or cancelled because of the windy weather. For example, Spirit of Vancouver Island, sailing from Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay, was scheduled to arrive at 10:35 p.m., but was delayed until past 11 p.m.
