Lot's of debris filled streets around the city of Nanaimo after a wind storm knocked out power to thousands of people. (Alex Rawnsley/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

HIGH WINDS

Hydro crews continue work restoring power for thousands across central Island region

Nov 5, 2022 | 9:05 AM

NANAIMO — BC Hydro crews are making steady progress turning the lights on for thousands still feeling the effects of a strong wind storm.

Gusts upwards of 90 kilometres per hour shut the lights off shortly after 8:30 p.m. in most areas of Nanaimo, Parksville, Qualicum Beach and surrounding rural communities on Friday, Nov. 4.

Mike Gismonei, meteorologist with Environment Canada said their monitoring station at Nanaimo Airport recorded winds close to 70 kilometres per hour, while Entrance Island got up to 93 kilometres per hour.

“We had a fairly intense system crossing the province on Friday and it gave us some decent rainfall amounts to most areas, the winds ended being the main story, it was a little bit stronger then we expected.”

The Qualicum Beach airport saw winds reach 61 kilometres per hour at the storm’s peak.

final flight

Massive Philippine Mars waterbomber preparing for final Island departure

1h ago

Skatepark refresh

Town of Ladysmith seeks public insight in reforming skateboard park

16h ago

stabbing

UPDATE: Two people stab City of Nanaimo employee with needles at Maffeo Sutton Park

18h ago

Gismonei added the system, despite its powerful impact, is indicative of the fall weather pattern.

“”I wouldn’t say it’s rare for this time of year, we’re in kinda the fall and winter storm season, so this kind of thing is pretty common, for a couple times a year.”

Geoff Whiting Deputy Chief of operations with Nanaimo Fire Recuse told NanaimoNewsNOW crews responded to 62 calls in a 24-hour period, which is a record for the city.

“Once the extra crews got in, that helped the situation a bit, we had more resources. The busy period lasted two to three hours, where everything kind of happened at once, crews were just going to from incident to another.”

As of 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 5, just over 8,000 customers were without power on the central Island, including 6,000 in the Nanaimo area.

BC Hydro said in a service update they had been tracking the storm and sent many crews home early Friday to rest them in advance.

“All available BC Hydro crews and contractor crews worked throughout the night to repair and restore customers impacted by the storm. One challenge the crews faced during the night was falling trees, which made it too dangerous for them to access some areas to begin repair work.”

Forty-two outages remain as of Saturday morning on the central Island.

The first call for downed power lines in the City of Nanaimo came in at 8:34 p.m. at the intersection of Bowen and Labieux.

In total, Nanaimo Fire Rescue were called to 17 different locations across the city due to downed power lines. Regional fire crews were also kept extremely busy.

People who see downed power lines should stay away at least 10 metres and call 911.

“Clean up work is expected to continue throughout the day,” Hydro’s update read. “Because of the extensive damage, repair work may take some time and could continue into tomorrow (Sunday, Nov. 6), especially for customers in more remote areas.”

More rain and wind is expected Saturday night into Sunday morning, however the system isn’t expected to be as intense.

The long term forecast for the region calls for mostly sunny skies with daytime high temperatures between three and five degrees.

Join the conversation. Submit your letter to NanaimoNewsNOW and be included on The Water Cooler, our letters to the editor feature.

info@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @NanaimoNewsNOW