Tuesday October 13, 2020 | SOUTH VANCOUVER ISLAND, BC [Last update 8:40 pm]
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Overnight the wind and rain have contributed to power outages in the south Vancouver Island area.
As of 6 am this morning, there were 1,211 BC Hydro customers without power, mostly in remote areas (836 on Galiano and Mayne Island, and 375 in the Shirley area west of Sooke). Service went down between 3:38 am and 4:11 am, as posted on the BC Hydro website. As of 6:15 am: down to 934 customers without power (as Mayne Island customers are restored).
In the North Vancouver Island region there were 2,844 BC Hydro customers without power early this morning around 6:30 am.
Today’s forecast:
During the day today the Environment Canada forecast for the Victoria area was for periods of rain and some early morning chance of thunderstorms. Winds today were estimated as between 30 and 60 km/h, with some gusts up to 90 km/h and that did serve to continue with impacting power lines and service.
By mid-evening:
At 8:30 pm tonight there were 7,131 BC Hydro customers without power (in a total of 50 outages) due to wind and rainstorm impacts. Trees come down onto wires and equipment can be affected.
A large chunk of the areas still without power heading into the later evening are in Duncan-Cowichan areas, as well as Metchosin and Sooke.
Power has been restored over the course of the day in areas of Central Saanich, Colwood, Duncan, Esquimalt, the Gulf Islands, Langford, Metchosin, North Saanich and Sidney, and some Victoria areas around Quadra and Hillside areas.