By Canadian Press

Strong winds, heavy rain knock out power to tens of thousands in southern B.C.

Nov 5, 2022 | 1:32 PM

VANCOUVER — Tens of thousands of homes remain in the dark after fierce storms with strong winds toppled trees and brought down power lines throughout southern B.C.

The BC Hydro website shows power is being restored on an ongoing basis, though as of 11:45 a.m., it was still out for more than 80,000 customers between Vancouver Island, the Lower Mainland and the Sunshine Coast, with some additional outages in the northern, central and southern Interior regions.

The Crown utility says power had so far been restored to more than 230,000 customers after the overnight windstorm affected about 330,000.

The hardest hit areas included Surrey, Victoria, Nanaimo, Qualicum and Parksville.

BC Hydro says the powerful winds knocked down trees and branches that were already weakened by drought that stretched well into the fall, and crews began working throughout the night to repair damaged power lines and hydro poles.

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Given what the utility describes as “extensive damage,” it says some of the cleanup work will likely continue into Sunday, especially for customers in remote areas.

A photo posted to BC Hydro’s Twitter page shows a tree uprooted in Vancouver, its trunk and branches blocking a residential street.

Environment Canada had issued wind warnings Friday evening, forecasting gusts of up to 90 km/h, but those were lifted overnight.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2022.

The Canadian Press