Thousands spend Christmas without power days after storm
Tuesday, December 25, 2018, 6:00 PM - Thousands remained without power Tuesday, days after a strong windstorm swept through B.C., and knocked down trees and power lines.
BC Hydro said that while crews have been working round the clock to restore power to 600,000 customers affected by Thursday's storm, 12,000 customers remained without power Christmas Day.
BC Hydro spokesperson Mora Scott said it will be "several more days" before some people get the lights back on.
"We have about 90 crews working on Vancouver Island and the the Gulf Islands today," Scott said. "The damage is really extensive though in the remaining areas and there are still hundreds of individual outages, so it's going to take some time to restore the power to everyone."
Thursday's windstorm was the worst BC Hydro has seen in 20 years. Winds as high as 100 km/h ripped over southern B.C., toppling trees and snapping power lines.
Crews were working round-the-clock Tuesday to restore power losses caused by a windstorm in B.C. last Thursday. (BC Hydro)
Some 800 field workers are out doing repairs, the company said, including workers brought in from the Interior and contractor crews from Alberta and the East Coast.
The required repairs are extensive: crews have to restring hundreds of spans of lines and replace power poles and transformers.
The following areas are still affected:
North Vancouver Island area:
- Ladysmith, Nanaimo, North Cowichan, Port Alberni, Qualicum Beach and Ucluelet.
South Vancouver Island area:
- Central Saanich, Duncan, Galiano Island, Ganges, Pender Island, Saturna Island and a few customers in Victoria.
BC Hydro will continue to provide updates as they become available, with updated estimates for restoration posted on the company's website.
This article was originally posted on CBC.ca.
