When thousands of Vancouver students stayed home due to a 'wind day'

This Day In Weather History is a daily podcast by Chris Mei from The Weather Network, featuring stories about people, communities and events and how weather impacted them.

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On Monday, March 12, 2012, winds up to 130 km/h crashed through Vancouver Island and the rest of British Columbia's South Coast.

The wind was strong enough to halt 12 ferry routes.

Several school districts closed for the day, keeping more than 15,000 students home for what could be dubbed a "wind day."

Bus routes were also halted because buses couldn't circumvent fallen trees. The wind was taking down trees all over Vancouver.

Stanley Park had to close because fallen trees were blocking an off-ramp. Trees were falling on roads, houses, and power lines.

Over 118,000 customers lost power due to the windstorm.

On Vancouver Island, the wind was so strong that a roof blew off of a house and onto a neighbour's yard.

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Luckily, no one was hurt. So you can proceed to this "close call" story with confidence.

Laken Platt, A 10-year-old on Vancouver Island, was playing video games on a footstool in his family's mobile home. The wind was roaring and took down a huge tree, which fell directly on the boy's home. Platt was pinned underneath the tree.

His mother immediately ran to their neighbour's house and called 911. Firefighters came to the rescue and sawed through the footstool to free Platt.

The next day, an unscathed Platt was joyously climbing on the tree that crushed his family's home and came dangerously close to taking his life.

To learn more about B.C.'s windstorm, listen to today's episode of "This Day In Weather History."

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