More than 16,000 BC Hydro customers without power as storms pick up

BC Hydro has their hands full dealing with a number of outages across the Lower Mainland on Sunday, October 24.

More than 10,000 customers in Abbotsford, Mission, and Surrey were experiencing outages. In the entire Lower Mainland and Sunshine Coast region, more than 16,000 customers were affected.

Wind warnings and special weather statements are in effect for Metro Vancouver and Vancouver Island as a historic storm brews off the coast.

Crews will be heading to an outage near #MissionBC affecting 1,750 customers. They’ll share updates as available here: https://t.co/CVkwe9Rci4 pic.twitter.com/PEXgDCbwar

— BC Hydro (@bchydro) October 25, 2021

Many of the outages are under investigation, but others have reported causes like wires down and trees down across wires. You can see all the reported outages on the BC Hydro website.

Environment Canada warned Sunday afternoon that parts of Metro Vancouver could experience wind that blows at speeds of 70 km/h with gusts of up to 90 km/h by the water. Storms like this can create increased potential for power outages as high winds can tear down trees and cause tree limbs to break.

We’re continuing to track wind warnings for #VancouverIsland & #MetroVancouver. Here’s an update from our team on how crews are preparing for power outages. #BCStorm

☎️ Report outages: 1 800 224 9376
☎️ Report fallen power lines: 911
📱 Outage updates: https://t.co/JY7BGL1bO4 pic.twitter.com/XxLJb0C14f

— BC Hydro (@bchydro) October 23, 2021

BC Hydro said in a tweet from Saturday, October 23 that they’re prepared for storm season and are ready to ramp up their crews to respond.

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