BC Hydro crews back on storm alert despite restoring power to thousands in interior
Posted January 6, 2020 7:26 am.
Last Updated January 6, 2020 7:27 am.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Just hours after BC Hydro finished up restoring power to the last people left in the dark due to a massive storm on New Year’s Eve in the B.C. interior, new storm warnings came into effect, sparking renewed concerns.
Snowfall warnings have been issued for the Sea to Sky region, including Whistler, as well as parts of the central interior and the west Kootenays, where thousands were left without electricity to start off 2020.
“We do have a number of crews in the area already in anticipation that this latest storm could cause some more damage and result in more outages for our customers,” Tanya Fish with BC Hydro explains. “So, if we do start to see some outages pop up, our crews are well-equipped to start responding to those and get customers back as quickly as possible.”
Winter storm warning in effect for Whistler and Pemberton, intensifying tonight, we could see 30cm of snow by tomorrow morning, rainfall warning for Squamish, 60-90mm expected – ????5:40am Function #whistler #seatosky <Darren> pic.twitter.com/UQPNOYSFNa
— Mountain FM (@MountainFMradio) January 6, 2020
During the height of the New Year’s Eve storm, more than 160,000 Hydro customers were left without power across the province, many of them for well over 36-hours.
“In some areas, we had over 50 centimetres of snowfall,” Fish explains of conditions crews had to deal with as a result of the snowstorm. “So this knocked down power lines, it brought down power poles, and again it just created a huge access issue for our crews. Then you have these outages in very remote locations.”
Some areas could be hit with as much as 30 cm of snow through Monday and Tuesday. Fish says additional snowfall could create even more problems.
“What we see is an accumulation of snow on trees and branches, which, again, adds weight to those branches and trees and then they can fall onto a power line or knock down a power pole. In other cases, we have snow that will accumulate on the power line itself.”
There was significant damage to our system in that area from fallen trees that resulted in several broken poles and several spans of downed power line. Our crews are on site and expect to restore power today. Please continue to check https://t.co/JY7BGL1bO4. #BCStorm pic.twitter.com/BSWMxMaCjv
— BC Hydro (@bchydro) January 5, 2020
