Heavy winds cause power outages in Lower Mainland; conditions expected to persist

BC Hydro crews said Saturday morning they were working to restore power to customers across the Metro Vancouver and Fraser Valley.

Kevin Aquino, BC Hydro spokesperson, tells CityNews that these outages affected thousands of people on Saturday.

“We’re seeing about 23,000 customers without power with the hardest hit areas in Delta, Surrey, and Vancouver. Our crews are already on-site repairing damage and restoring power,” he said Saturday morning.

As of mid-afternoon, only around 2,000 customers remained without power.

Aquino said Saturday’s outages were likely due to the windy conditions.

“We prepare for weather events like this year-round and our crews can activate response plans at a moment’s notice. We (are) fortunate that we have more (than) 55 offices throughout the province, so our crews are well-positioned in the event problems arise,” he said.

Aquino encourages customers to be prepared with emergency kits and stay away from downed lines.

“If you come across a downed line, stay at least 10 metres back and dial 911,” he said.

“A downed line is considered an emergency and our crews will work with emergency responders to ensure the area is safe.”

Windy conditions are expected to persist through Saturday

CityNews Meteorologist Michael Kuss says the heaviest winds will be out over the Strait of Georgia, where gusts could touch 80 kilometres per hour.

He says winds will taper off a little bit in the early afternoon, but not completely. We’re still going to see 30 to even 60 kilometres per hour gusts through the mid-afternoon.

“There’s a secondary system coming in and that’s evening, overnight, and tomorrow morning too. It’s another windy day on Sunday, where we once again see winds near the water punching up to 70 possibly even 80 kilometers per hour,” he says.

He says people should be watching out for tree branches, but the “good news is trees aren’t yet in full foliage” even in a windstorm of this magnitude.

“The downside is that we still have trees that could be weakened by the way the precipitation has been over the last six months to a year really and that creates more problems with trees coming down and branches coming off of them,” he says.

With files from Cole Schisler.