Wednesday January 15, 2020 ~ SOUTH VANCOUVER ISLAND
~ West Shore Voice News
Due to high wind this evening, there have not surprisingly been power outages as lines are impacted by wind and falling trees.
Environment Canada’s wind warning advised of gusts in the 70 to 90 km/h range.
As of mid-evening, there were almost 10,000 BC Hydro customers without power on all of Vancouver Island, about two-thirds of those in the South Vancouver Island area.
At 11:45 pm there were 29 outages seeing 6,787 customers without power on South Vancouver Island including Central Saanich and North Saanich (about 3700), Duncan and North Cowichan, Oak Bay (305), Saanich (about 180), the James Bay area of Victoria (560), and Sooke (about 500). Crews are assigned or on site in most instances.
Remote areas have received this BC Hydro regional alert: As snow and strong winds continue, customers currently without power in Jordan River and Galiano Island will be out overnight as current conditions are too dangerous to complete restoration work or are preventing access to these areas. Weather permitting, crews will return the morning of January 16th to restore power to these customers.
Power outages are a fact of life for BC Hydro but are a considerable cost in terms of equipment replacement and employee time.
Because it is difficult to predict how much damage a storm may cause to the system and how long a power outage will last, BC Hydro it is important for customers to be prepared for an outage:
- Have an emergency kit ready: include a flashlight, extra batteries, first-aid kit, three days’ worth of ready-to-eat non-perishable foods, and bottled water.
- Knowing how to contact BC Hydro if the power goes out. There is current outage information at bchydro.com/outages. If the outage isn’t listed, call 1-800-BCHYDRO to report it.
=== LINKS
Weather Archive | Links to The Weather Network for the west shore
WEATHER: West Shore of Vancouver Island