candle in power outage / Shutterstock
Yesterday, a rat was the culprit behind a large power outage in Richmond.
Today, however, powerful winds have caused a number of power outages in the Lower Mainland and the forecast calls for the winds to continue into this evening.
Powerful northeasterly outflow winds with gusts up to 90 km/h have developed over the western and central Fraser Valley as well as the southeast sections of Metro Vancouver including Surrey and Langley.
Currently, there are 53 outages listed in the Lower Mainland and Sunshine Coast. Many of the outages report that a tree has fallen down on the wires, while others simply say "windstorm."
So far, North Vancouver has been hit the worst. BC Hydro reports that crews have restored power to the local substation and are working on remaining outages in the area. In addition, crews have been mobilized to support restoration of any additional outages from continued winds.
A windstorm has caused a number of outages in the Lower Mainland, primarily in North Vancouver. Crews are currently working to restore power to the local substation which should restore the majority of the affected customers in that area. pic.twitter.com/Pt8foLoJKb
— BC Hydro (@bchydro) November 27, 2019
The windstorm has also caused outages affecting thousands in Burnaby, Coquitlam, West Vancouver, Bowen Island, and Maple Ridge.
The outages affected a whopping 9,000 customers in West Vancouver and North Vancouver alone.
A crew is enroute to an outage affecting 300 customers on #BowenIsland. They hope to arrive on site by 7:30 a.m. Updates: https://t.co/tCCtv7vhwK pic.twitter.com/x3btwc1pMP
— BC Hydro (@bchydro) November 27, 2019
Crews are on site at outages affecting 9,000 customers in #NorthVan and #WestVan. They hope to have power restored by 9 a.m. Updates: https://t.co/myVl108WTs pic.twitter.com/Gx7l2ToeNR
— BC Hydro (@bchydro) November 27, 2019
Crews will be heading to an outage affecting 2500 customers in #Burnaby #Coquitlam. They’ll share updates on our mobile site: https://t.co/pCeRXV0n9R pic.twitter.com/EPa3cllcdN
— BC Hydro (@bchydro) November 27, 2019
A crew will be heading to an outage affecting 500 customers in the #MapleRidge area. They'll share updates here: https://t.co/mzpQzdpnIY pic.twitter.com/AsVQmf5CK9
— BC Hydro (@bchydro) November 27, 2019
BC Hydro states that any fallen or damaged power line should be considered an emergency. Stay at least 10 metres back and call 9-1-1 immediately.
BC Hydro will continue to provide updates as they are available.
