Over 11,000 without power on Vancouver Island and Gulf Islands as storms continue

File photo.

A series of intense low-pressure systems has left around 11,000 customers without power on and near Vancouver Island, and B.C. Hydro is bracing for those numbers to rise.

Environment Canada has issued a wind warning advising that by early Friday afternoon winds of around 80 km/h gusting up to 100 km/h will hit parts of Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands.

“Our crews will be out there attending to the outages as quickly as they can,” said B.C. Hydro spokesperson Ted Olnyk.

“We will see how the storm progresses, the damage it causes, and make an assessment where resources are needed and if we need to bring resources over.”

A major outage hit Nanaimo at 11:30 a.m. that resulted in around 7,000 customers losing power.

The high winds over the last week have resulted in other outages and caused disruption to B.C. Ferries’ schedule. Major routes such as Swartz Bay to Tsawwassen are cancelled Friday until around 3 p.m.

There are also multiple outages on the mainland.

“This could be a significant event… at the end of the day its all up to mother nature,” added B.C. Hydro Spokesperson Ted Olnyk.

The total number of outages is over 11,020. Updates from B.C. Hydro can be found here 

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