Power slowly being restored to over 170,000 B.C. Hydro customers after storm
A storm battering B.C.'s South Coast knocked out power for more than 170,000 B.C. Hydro customers overnight on Friday as 60 ferry sailings were cancelled.
PHOTOS: Winds bring major power outages in B.C. amid disruptive storm
As of 2:30 p.m. PT on Saturday, B.C. Hydro said around 60,000 customers were still without power on the Lower Mainland and Sunshine Coast. The hardest-hit areas were the Metro Vancouver communities of Surrey, Langley, and Maple Ridge, according to the authority.
In a statement, a B.C. Hydro spokesperson said crews were working to restore power by repairing downed power poles and equipment.
"As storm season begins, drought-weakened trees are more susceptible to break and snap and come into contact with our electrical infrastructure, which may cause power outages," B.C. Hydro spokesperson Kevin Aquino told CBC News.
Trees that are downed in adverse weather cause more than half of all power outages in the B.C. Hydro grid, Aquino said in an interview on Saturday.
"When you compare the season to previous seasons, with the drought conditions at play, we are seeing more outages on the system," he said.
Fallen trees and debris are seen in Vancouver's West End following the windstorm. B.C. Hydro spokesperson Kevin Aquino says that trees falling on power lines are the main cause of power outages in the province. (Justine Boulin/CBC)
The power authority is increasing its vegetation management program in light of the drought and the significant rain that hits southwest B.C. every winter, he said.
"They regularly inspect vegetation or trees that are weakened or dead," he said. "We do the the proper pruning ... to ensure that they don't encroach into our power lines."
Ferry cancellations
B.C. Ferries cancelled 60 sailings across 12 routes on Friday evening due to the windstorm.
The cancellations affected all scheduled routes after 8:15 p.m. PT, B.C. Ferries said, except a handful of late sailings to the Sunshine Coast, Salt Spring Island, and Bowen Island.
On Saturday morning, ferry service was returning to normal — with some delays reported across the network.
Cars are seen lined up at Horseshoe Bay Ferry Terminal on Saturday. While some customers reported waits of up to half an hour, there were not any major delays after a windstorm forced cancellations on Friday evening. (Janella Hamilton/CBC)
"We did cancel some of the later evenings sailings yesterday," Deborah Marshall, a B.C. Ferries spokesperson, said on Saturday morning.
"I would imagine some of those customers decided to travel this morning, and we are accommodating our customers as quickly as we can," she said, adding the cancelled sailings were automatically refunded.
Environment Canada warns of wind, snowfall
Environment Canada said that southwest B.C. could see gusts of up to 90 kilometres per hour, with an estimated 70 millimetres of rain set to drop on the Fraser Valley.
The federal weather agency issued a winter storm warning for the Coquihalla Highway, or Highway 5, from Hope to Merritt.
As a precaution, B.C.'s Ministry of Transportation closed Highway 1 overnight in the Fraser Canyon south of Lytton. The closure stretched from Boothroyd, north of Boston Bar, up to Lytton.
The closure was due to the potential for debris flows in areas hit by wildfires, according to DriveBC. The highway reopened as of 12 p.m. PT Saturday, according to the province.
Forecasters say the rain should taper off over parts of Metro Vancouver on Saturday morning but will persist in the Fraser Valley until the evening.
Up to 20 centimetres of snow is expected in the Manning - Skagit Valley region on Saturday.
Environment Canada says downpours could be heavy enough to lead to flash floods and water pooling on roads.
A special weather statement covering portions of the Coquihalla and Trans-Canada highways, as well as Highway 3, said 20 to 30 centimetres of snow is expected on mountain passes by Sunday morning, by which time heavy snowfall is expected to abate.
This story was originally published by CBC News on November 11, 2023. It contains files from The Canadian Press, David P. Ball, Janella Hamilton and Akshay Kulkarni.