Effects of wildfire season felt before first fall storm, as Nanaimo braces for more
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NANAIMO — Impacts from the summer wildfire season are starting to be felt long after the last embers have been extinguished, and BC Hydro is worried the line between wildfire and storm season is disappearing.
Ted Olynyk, BC Hydro’s regional community relations manager, said Vancouver Island vegetation can withstand all kinds of conditions, but the extreme conditions are putting them to the test.
“It doesn’t seem to want to rain very much until September, sometimes October, and now finally we’re getting a big dump in November, and so that puts a lot of stress on the vegetation across the island, and it weakens them. And then when we get these extreme events of the storms and the winds, it’s more stress, and the trees are already weak, so it’s a lot easier for them to come down.”
He said the last few years have felt like a “continuous circle”, as the utility company goes from dealing with wildfire-related problems in the summer months to high winds and heavy rain causing issues in the fall and winter.
