BC Hydro prepares for rainstorm as it recovers from last weather events

Few people lost power Wednesday night in the Lower Mainland as the rain started to trickle down, but ahead of the worst of the storm Thursday, BC Hydro says it’s ready.

Some areas could see up to 80 millimetres of rain by Friday morning.

According to Susie Rieder with the utility, as of early Thursday, there were some spotty outages in the province. So far, those impacted are living in Prince George, Prince Rupert, as well as parts of Vancouver Island and Tsawwassen.

But as the wind and rain ramps up, Rieder says BC Hydro is expecting more disruptions to service throughout the day, especially on the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island.

Rain will continue to fall into the night before tapering off. CityNews Meteorologist Michael Kuss reports that while the forecast is dry for Friday, a very saturated ground and strong winds are potential concerns.

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Another rainy day is expected Saturday.

As power crews prepare to activate their storm response, BC Hydro is still rearing from the damage last week brought.

“Last week’s storms caused record inflows into some of our reservoirs and power outages to more than 258,000 people in the province,” Chris O’Riley, president and CEO, BC Hydro said in a statement.

Our crews are preparing for the next #BCStorm while clean up continues from the atmospheric river last week: https://t.co/V9RCM61lna pic.twitter.com/K8BkwHUslq

— BC Hydro (@bchydro) November 24, 2021

Rieder adds the utility is still working to make repairs in hard-hit areas, including along Highway 8 near Spences Bridge, where 91 customers are impacted.

“BC Hydro crews need to replace 87 power poles and 14 transformers in that area. A lot of our infrastructure was just washed away as well as telecommunications infrastructure. So it’s a very involved process to restore power in those areas. So that being said we did a preliminary assessment, and we’re going to the process of doing a more detailed assessment in that area,” she said.

Merritt has also continued to see outages because of safety.

“Many of the homes that remain without power there have sustained flooding damage and will need to be inspected before we can safely re-energize,” Rieder explained.

‘Storms are getting worse’

The full financial impact of the last rainstorm is still being tallied, but BC Hydro predicts it’s in the millions.

Over the past few years, Rieder says crews have learned a lot, adding they’ve noticed “storms are getting worse.”

“We have seen a huge increase in storms and outages that we’ve responded to over the past few years and that’s due to climate change,” she told CityNews.

“We did release a report about a month ago about how this storm season was going to be particularly challenging because of the drought that we experienced this summer across B.C. And that led to a lot of vegetation being weakened, trees dying. So when we get a situation where there’s a lot of rain and flooding, these trees are weakened, and when they do fall on power lines and on our infrastructure easier. So that’s one of the challenges that we’re facing with these types of storms.”

BC Hydro is recommending people prepare for potential outages by checking emergency kits to ensure they are up to date and nothing has expired.