Power slowly returns to BC Hydro customers across Metro Vancouver
Posted September 17, 2021 10:34 pm.
Last Updated September 18, 2021 11:47 am.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — Power outages hit cities across Metro Vancouver Friday night, with the most customers in the dark in Surrey, Maple Ridge, and Burnaby.
“Crews continue to work to respond to outages caused by [Friday’s] heavy rain and wind. We expect customers could be without power overnight, but crews will continue to restore power as quickly as possible,” reads a notice on the BC Hydro website.
Clients should keep checking online for updates, the notice says.
Simi Heer with BC Hydro says, at its peak around 8 p.m. Friday night, around 23,000 customers couldn’t turn their lights on.
#BCstorm update: Crews continue to work to respond to outages caused by today’s heavy rain and wind. We expect customers could be without power overnight, but crews will continue to restore power as quickly as possible. Please check here for updates: https://t.co/4RWNVUFL0M pic.twitter.com/2sDxHrrroW
— BC Hydro (@bchydro) September 18, 2021
About 5,000 customers in Maple Ridge and 3,000 in Surrey lost their power. In Burnaby, it was around 2,000. There were over 1,000 outages in Vancouver, followed by Sechelt, Langley, and Bowen Island.
BC Hydro says crews were on-site at several of the outages through the night, but some aren’t able to actually begin repairs until Saturday morning. Some areas won’t see help until later in the day.
Related Article: Heavy rainfall across B.C.’s South Coast, powerful winds also forecast
It's time to prepare for storm season. Stock an emergency kit with these essentials: https://t.co/pA9L97I3Hj pic.twitter.com/VRPQLt6rxK
— BC Hydro (@bchydro) September 18, 2021
On the tail of a particularly devastating wildfire season, BC Hydro released a report predicting a busy season ahead for its crews.
“Record-breaking summer temperatures in B.C. could mean more dead or weakened trees that pose a risk to electrical infrastructure this storm season,” Rieder said about the report, The perfect storm: How summer drought could mean severe fall storm fallout.
Making the situation worse, La Niña is predicted to bring colder and windier weather into the South Coast this fall. BC Hydro predicts it could create a “perfect storm” for power outages.
“This year on the South Coast we are concerned because the drought has caused a lot of vegetation that’s used to a lot more rain to dry out. So it’s weakened trees and vegetation. So this means on the South Coast especially in city centres where there are dense tree canopies and powerlines there could be a potential for more outages in places like Abbotsford and Downtown Vancouver,” Reider explained.
The bright side is that despite increasing storms and more power outages, BC Hydro says the five-year average shows that outage times are decreasing, so customers aren’t in the dark as long.
With files from Claire Fenton.
