BC Hydro Crews From PG Head to Lower Mainland
Prince George, B.C. – B.C. Hydro is sending some of its repair workers from Prince George down to the lower mainland to help with the task of re-connecting customers who lost power in a massive windstorm on Saturday.
More than 500,000 people were left without power early Saturday afternoon when the storm which was packing 80 kilometre-per-hour winds swept into southwestern BC, knocking down trees in many residential areas. Stanley Park was completely closed when it became apparent it was too dangerous for anyone to be there. B.C. Ferry service between the mainland and Vancouver Island was slowed because of the storm.
In Surrey downed trees blocked roads and took out Hydro lines and traffic lights. Trees fell on vehicles and a pedestrian was struck by a falling branch. She is said to have suffered life-threatening injuries.
BC Hydro says approximately 200,000 customers are still without power. The hardest hit areas are Vancouver, Burnaby, Surrey and the Tri-Cities. Hydro has more than 250 employees out making repairs. They hope to have the majority of the outages repaired by late today.
Comments
Looks like lots of work for utility arborists.
Hydro arborists used to inspect the trees along the road where I live and cut down any that were likely to fall on the lines in a wind storm. Now the wait for the wind storm and then cut them off the lines.
The same windstorm hit the Washington State area. Power was out all the way down to and including Olympia. Well over a million people affected between the two countries. That is very unusual.
It’s all about the dollar. Good thing it was a summer storm. Perhaps they’ll get things cleaned up a bit before winter.
Why unusual, nothing new just a little early.
And they are saying Van and area will be hit with more wind storms tonight.. Good thing the extra guys will be there to help out.
Thats why it’s unusual….its early.
I think it is also unusual because of the extent of it and the length of time the power is out in some places Power is not going to be restored till Tuesday at 6pm in the USA. Can’t find a BC Hydro power outage map. Puget Sound power has a relatively detailed map.
The extent of the damage from Vancouver to Olympia and inland to the base of the Cascades is at least over 300km.
Then the power went out here due to an accident again. I think we need to start to put a few more aerial power lines which are in vulnerable locations underground.
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