Some BC Hydro customers and Vancouver Island might not get their power back on today.
BC Hydro has confirmed some customers will go without power overnight and may need to be patient until Tuesday. "At the peak we hit about 50,000 customers [without power] on the Island, and the Victoria area has been the hardest hit on the Island," said Spokesperson Ted Olynyk on CFAX 1070 with host Ryan Price. At the time, over 20,000 customers were still without power but over half of the initial outages had been restored.
Olynyk said a variety of factors play into which areas get power restored quicker, including the extent of damage, the location and if crews need to prioritize re-opening a emergency services route.
"It can be challenging depending on how much damage crews face when they get there… how many trees are down and how much damage has been caused to our system," he said. "We know we are going to have people out overnight, it is just a question, we'll find out later where those customers are who will be out overnight."
The storm that caused all the power outage peaked around midday and was easing later into the evening.
"I think we're past the real crunch here. There were definitely some winds, believe it or not, upwards of 100 kilometres an hour even at Gonzalez station there just above Gonzales Bay. Even Esquimalt Harbour saw almost 100 kilometres an hour, and Victoria Harbour as well," said Environment and Climate Change Canada meteorologist Armel Castellan.
Castellan suggests southeastern winds shifting to gust from the west contributed to the peak of today's weather event.
The wind warning remains in effect, but Castellan says we're likely done with the strongest gusts in this weather event.