Power restored to majority of BC Hydro customers after Sunday windstorm

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – BC Hydro crews have been able to clean up the vast majority of the problems from Sunday’s intense windstorm which hammered the South Coast.

At its height, around 180,000 BC Hydro customers across the Lower Mainland, Sunshine Coast, and Vancouver Island had lost power.

Here’s a #BCStorm update from our team in #Vancouver: Crews will continue to work throughout the day and we expect to have all remaining customers restored later today. We’ll provide updated estimates for power restoration as they become available at https://t.co/JY7BGL1bO4. pic.twitter.com/GSazmrtci1

— BC Hydro (@bchydro) March 29, 2021

However, work from crews around the clock saw more than 97 per cent of customers’ service restored by 9 a.m. Monday.

“This weather system in particular was one that we had watched for the past several days. We actually do have a team and they have meteorologists that track these storms for us so we know about them before they hit. Basically, what this allows us to do is make sure that we have the right number of people in the right locations with the right equipment,” BC Hydro’s Mora Scott said Monday.

Big tree down in EastVan. @NEWS1130 @GlobalBC #BCStorm pic.twitter.com/plM6CXn2Id

— Simon Clayton PREC* (@604realtor) March 29, 2021

A wind warning was in effect for Metro Vancouver on Sunday, with the forecast calling for gusts of 70 km to 90 km an hour through the afternoon and evening.

Winds died down overnight.

A number of areas, including Vancouver, West Vancouver, Surrey, and Langley, were particularly hard-hit by high winds, with BC Hydro saying most of the issues across the region were connected to downed power lines. In some cases, trees toppled over onto these lines.

“With every storm that we deal with, there’s definitely lessons that we learn and that we take from each storm to make sure that we can do better each time,” Scott explained. “But preparing for storms and responding to storms are certainly part of our business and it’s something that we work at year-round.”

Insane windstorm! Downed tree in a east vancouver neighborhood. @NEWS1130 @CBCVancouver @GlobalBC @DailyHiveVan @CTVVancouver pic.twitter.com/UTpFkacnbh

— Joere estremadura (@jestremadura87) March 29, 2021

Buntzen Lake was closed Sunday because of the wind warning impacting the area.

-With files from Paul James