Remote communities on northern Vancouver Island that have been mostly without power since Sunday are relying on food and fuel deliveries by barge and specialized vehicles to keep warm and fed until power can be restored.
The electricity went out in Zeballos and Tahsis on Sunday and was briefly back on Monday before going out again early Tuesday.
B.C. Hydro says storms have caused “extensive damage” to power lines serving the communities and it could be another couple of days before power is restored.
“It’s been tough for the community,” said Tahsis Mayor Martin Davis.
“Everybody’s without power. Of course, the freezers are warming up and everything else is getting cold.”
Those who have emergency generators and enough fuel to run them can keep food fresh and their homes heated. For others, both Tahsis and Zeballos have opened warming centres where residents can go to stay warm and eat a hot meal.
Recent storms have also made road access to the remote area difficult, creating supply issues for the communities.
Some sections of the 2.5-hour drive from Zeballos to Campbell River are reduced to one lane and residents are being asked not to travel on the icy and snowy roads unless it’s essential, to make it easier for vehicles to deliver emergency provisions of food and prescription medicines, said Zeballos Mayor Julie Colborne.
The Strathcona Regional District is supporting the two villages and three First Nations that are without power, delivering food and medication by freight truck to Zeballos and fuel by 4x4 vehicle to Tahsis.
The district had initially planned to fly supplies in Wednesday, but poor weather grounded the helicopter, said Shaun Koopman, protective services co-ordinator for the district.
“It’s just day by day. You know, we plan for a truck and then all of a sudden it needs to be a barge, or we plan for a helicopter and then all of a sudden it needs to be a truck,” Koopman said.
Grieg Seafood, headquartered in Norway, has stepped in to deliver fuel and food to the communities by barge.
The company has salmon farms in remote areas nearby that are set up to be self-sufficient, said Rocky Boschman, managing director of Grieg Seafood.
“Living in a small coastal town, you know, everyone helps out and we’re really lucky to be able to help out our neighbors,” he said.
Residents in the area are accustomed to power outages, but the current situation is “anything but normal,” Colborne said.
“This is quite a significant outage being, you know, multi-day. So, it is quite different than anything we’ve dealt with before and also having the limited road access creates some supply issues.”
The warming centre in Zeballos’s community hall is heated with an emergency generator purchased just a few years ago with grant funding through Emergency Management B.C.
“Without that emergency generator system, I’m not sure what shape we would be in right now,” Colborne said.
The community is showing its resilience, she said, with residents using social media to ask for and offer supplies such as firewood and propane.
B.C. Hydro crews have been trying to assess the damage by air but have faced challenges due to poor weather, said Ted Olynyk, manager of community relations for B.C. Hydro.
Patrols on the ground have revealed structural damage that is not accessible by road. Crews that have been able to get in by helicopter and then were hoisted down to examine damage report shoulder-height snow in some areas, Olynyk said.
B.C. Hydro says it hopes to complete repairs and restore power by Sunday night.
“Hoping that we don’t have any problems with weather, because the work is going to be done with a helicopter,” Olynyk said.
