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Dave Obee: Your Friday paper was a casualty of Ladysmith power outage

We’re back, and glad to be here. The Friday print edition of the Times Colonist was a casualty of the storm that swept across Vancouver Island on Thursday. The high winds knocked down trees that took out B.C.
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Storm damage in Chemainus on Friday, Dec. 21, 2018.

Dave ObeeWe’re back, and glad to be here. The Friday print edition of the Times Colonist was a casualty of the storm that swept across Vancouver Island on Thursday. The high winds knocked down trees that took out B.C. Hydro lines, cutting off power to tens of thousands of customers, including the press facility in Ladysmith that prints this newspaper.

It was the first time we’ve had to miss an edition since the blizzard 22 years ago next week. This time, fortunately, we were able to put our newspaper online, although obviously that didn’t help all those people huddling under blankets and reading by candlelight.

Thursday’s storm might be considered a once-in-a-lifetime weather event by anyone between the Malahat and Nanaimo. Greater Victoria was hit hard, but the serious damage occurred to the north of the city.

The trees that were toppled hit power lines and blocked roads. There were huge lineups on Thursday afternoon and evening on the Trans-Canada Highway southbound as drivers found their way around the trees and branches. Crews were working into the wee hours to clear the main highway.

Around midnight Thursday I drove to Ladysmith, and it was a surreal experience. The shopping centres at the north end of Duncan and on the southern edge of Ladysmith were both pitch black.

More than half the traffic lights were out, so drivers were forced to rely on their training to know what to do. (Hint: “Treat it like a four-way stop” does not mean you can blow through the intersection without slowing down.)

The damage was much more evident in the cold light of the day on Friday. Trees were down on all sides, and signs were damaged or destroyed. Chemainus looked like a war zone. Everywhere, people were trying to clean up their driveways and yards.

The continuing power outage meant stores were closed on what should have been the busiest shopping day of the year. At least by Friday, the airports and the ferries were able to get back to normal, if somewhat busier.

The press in Ladysmith was without power for about 24 hours, but many other B.C. Hydro customers have it much worse than that. It will be a few days before B.C. Hydro restores service to all of its Island customers.

The lengthy power outage has had an impact on today’s newspaper as well, because we were not able to include all of our usual Saturday features. Among the missing are the sports scoreboard page, the weather page, puzzles, and the stocks pages.

On the other hand, we are including two sections that would have appeared on Friday: TV Scene and Driving.

Sunday’s paper, the last Times Colonist before Christmas, will have all of the features our readers would expect.

We apologize for missing a day of publication and for the inconvenience that has been caused.

Thanks for your continued support. Here’s hoping we can all enjoy the best of the season, without more weather drama.

Dave Obee is publisher and editor of the Times Colonist.