Power remains off on Gabriola Island after the lights went out on Monday night. (File photo/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Ian Holmes

powerless

Familiar ‘no power, no phone’ movie replayed for Gabriola Islanders

Nov 22, 2024 | 6:07 AM

GABRIOLA ISLAND — Residents are familiar with the script, but that doesn’t make it any easier.

Power has been out for residents of Gabriola and neighbouring Mudge Island since the evening of Tuesday, Nov. 19 when a powerful storm bruised Vancouver Island and surrounding areas.

While most areas of Vancouver Island have had service restored, power and reliable telecommunication services remains elusive on Gabriola Island, home to nearly 5,000 people.

Gabriola Volunteer Fire Department chief Will Sprogis said compounding the issue of no power is heavily restricted land and cell phone connectivity.

He said their primary fire hall on Church St. is a temporarily staging area for walk-in emergencies.

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“911 is down and our fear is that people can’t get through. We’ve set up the fire hall with radio operators there and BC ambulance is at the fire hall as well.”

Stating the walk-in emergency service is “working quite well,” Sprogis emphasized the Church St. Fire hall is not warming station during the prolonged power outage.

He was encouraged to see a BC Hydro truck and several contractors on Gabriola on Thursday afternoon working to restore power with the priority being the village core, home to many key services.

“And then getting our medical clinic, fire hall, ambulance station, school back up, all of the critical infrastructure, the ferry as well.”

Pointing to previous prolonged power and telecommunication outages in 2018 and 2021 on Gabriola, he said vastly improved cellular service is required.

“Cell service is spotty on a good day, on a challenging day where we don’t get the best signal calls our dropped quite frequently. The fire hall is always pushing for better cell service on Gabriola.”

As of Friday morning, thousands on the Island remain without power due to two main outages and a number of other incidents over recent days.

It’s affecting over 3,000 BC Hydro customers on Gabriola, plus more on neighbouring Mudge Island.

Ted Olynyk, BC Hydro’s manager of community relations for Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast, said crews are focused on getting power restored to the Gabriola area.

He said the sheer volume of damage to their lines and poles has meant challenging and time-consuming repairs.

“We do have extra crews in from the Lower Mainland to help out, but certainly with the damage from this storm it’s been quite the challenge,” Olynyk said.

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Ian.holmes@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @reporterholmes