Thousands in Greater Victoria remain without power after a major windstorm toppled trees onto power lines across B.C.’s South Coast Friday (Nov. 4) night.
The howling winds resulted in power outages to 330,000 BC Hydro customers throughout the province. By late Saturday (Nov. 5) morning, the company managed to restore power to 230,000 of those customers.
“Crews worked through the night after strong winds and heavy rain left thousands of customers without powers on the Gulf Islands and southern region of Vancouver Island,” BC Hydro said in a statement.
As of 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, more than 7,000 BC Hydro customers living in the Greater Victoria region are still without power. Just over 10,500 customers in total are still affected across southern Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands.
The company said restoration work will continue throughout the day on Saturday, but due to extensive damage, some repairs could continue into Sunday (Nov. 6), especially for customers in more remote areas.
According to BC Hydro, many of the trees and branches knocked down by the extreme winds were weakened as a result of this year’s summer drought.
As repair work continues, BC Hydro will provide updated estimates for power restoration as they become available at bchydro.com/outages.
BC Hydro asks anyone who may see a downed power line to stay at least 10 metres back and call 911.
ALSO READ: Strong wind, heavy rain knock out power to tens of thousands in B.C.
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