Wind storm knocks out power to 185,000 customers across BC
A powerful wind storm driven by a cold front Tuesday night that brought gusts of up to 70 km/hr caused tens of thousands of customers across the South Coast to lose power.
As of 8 am, most of the major outages in Metro Vancouver have been restored, with the exception of pockets of outages across the region as well as a large outage in downtown Vancouver’s West End that initially affected 4,000 customers.
BC Hydro hopes to have the power restored to the remaining 2,000 customers affected in this city centre area by 9 am.
Crews on site at 2 outages in downtown #Vancouver affecting 4000 customers from a fallen wire. Updates as available: https://t.co/Z5rKJ8bNq9 pic.twitter.com/ZQS0L8Du4t
— BC Hydro (@bchydro) May 24, 2017
The electric utility says 50 crews and contractor crews were deployed across the province to restore power as soon as possible. It is estimated that 185,000 customers in the Lower Mainland, Vancouver Island, and Central Interior lost their power at some point of the storm overnight.
Fallen branches and trees onto overhead power lines is the most common cause of power outages during a wind storm.
While the forecast today calls for sunny skies, the temperature is expected to drop from yesterday’s high of 22°C at YVR Airport to 17°C today due to the prevalence of the cold front. Temperatures will return to the 20s beginning tomorrow.
No rainfall is in the forecast for the foreseeable future.
#Vancouver storm! #bcstorm #Englishbay #Sunsetbeach #falsecreek pic.twitter.com/pfALFS0BjX
— Smitty (@Smith442Smith) May 24, 2017
The #richmondbc River Green Sand dune #bcstorm #windy #yvr pic.twitter.com/iIFXJibna2
— erichharvey (@erichharvey) May 24, 2017
And to think it was 26 degrees this afternoon. Tree removed from the line in Aspen Grove #bcstorm @bchydro pic.twitter.com/Rj5F0BJNDB
— James Neufeld (@TheRealJNeufeld) May 24, 2017
@CTVVancouver Power lines down at 10th and Dunbar which created heavy sparks and a fire in a backyard. Crews on scene now #BCstorm pic.twitter.com/P60esYTxJf
— Krystal Kaju (@krystalkaju) May 24, 2017
Just heard a thump. Checked outside. tree down on neighbours’ cars. Careful people. Stay indoors. #bcstorm pic.twitter.com/UZpapTj3fX
— Bruce Ito (@itobruce) May 24, 2017
Neighbour’s home. Everyone is okay. #bcstorm pic.twitter.com/itCpivsNL3
— Arita (@arquilters2010) May 24, 2017
what’s happening there?#bcstorm pic.twitter.com/lwxYAIBuwu
— mursal ahmadi (@AhmadiMursii) May 24, 2017
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