Tree down late on the morning of Monday, Dec 15 on Bayliss Rd., east of Hwy 19A in the Dashwood area north of Qualicum Beach. (Dashwood Volunteer Fire Department)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

storm

Power out for over 15,000 BC Hydro customers across Nanaimo & Oceanside

Dec 15, 2025 | 11:15 AM

NANAIMO — Brisk winds from an ongoing storm system zapped power to large numbers of people across the mid-Island.

Roughly 7,500 BC Hydro customers lost power in the Nanaimo area starting at 9 a.m. on Monday, Dec. 15, with blustery winds knocking over branches and trees onto power lines.

Large swaths of outages are currently in place in Nanaimo’s downtown, Townsite, Northfield Rd., Stephenson Point, Rock City and Chase River areas.

A sizeable outage also affects the Dashwood area north of Qualicum Beach, with 1,475 customers without power, while neighbouring Hilliers and Bowser had another 2,000 off the grid.

Around 10,000 Oceanside residents and businesses were without electricity as of mid-Monday afternoon.

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Strong winds are forecast to ease through the day, but not before gusts upwards of 70 kilometres per hour hit the area.

Windy conditions, along with considerable rainfall, are in the forecast for much of the week, with a yellow rainfall warning in effect for the Oceanside region in effect for much of the morning, but lifted around noon.

Between 70 and 90 millimetres was expected to fall.

Information on current power outages in the province can be found at BC Hydro’s website linked here.

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