Thousands of residents have lost power at the onset of the latest BC storm hitting Vancouver Island.
On Monday, Environment Canada issued strong wind and heavy rainfall advisories for many communities across the Island as a pacific frontal system approached the region.
Strong winds are anticipated to surge throughout Tuesday morning and afternoon, subsiding by the evening.
Winds are expected to reach speeds between 70-90 km/hr in Greater Victoria, Duncan, Nanaimo and along the east coast, while wind speeds could clock up to 100 km/hr on the west coast and 110 km/hr in the northern regions.
According to BC Hydro’s Outage Map, several residents are already without power on Vancouver Island, with one of the larger outages currently in Cumberland impacting nearly 2,500 customers.
Crews have been assigned to an outage affecting 2,339 customers in #Cumberland. They'll share updates here: https://t.co/PzptNV4jNM pic.twitter.com/LEXjO9OdEP
— BC Hydro (@bchydro) January 5, 2021
Additionally, a major outage is impacting almost 3,500 customers in Campbell River, while another 2,100 are being affected by a recent outage in Nanaimo.
A separate outage – caused by a tree down across some wires – is impacting nearly 800 customers in the Comox area.
BC Hydro crews will be working throughout the day to restore power and updates can be tracked on the company’s website.
“Damage to buildings, such as to roof shingles and windows, may occur. High winds may toss loose objects or cause tree branches to break,” cautions Environment Canada as the storm approaches.
In anticipation of the extreme winds, BC Ferries announced that many of their sailings along major routes would be cancelled throughout Tuesday.
In addition to the heavy winds, a rainfall warning is in effect for the west coast of Vancouver Island.
Environment Canada is anticipating that total rainfall will reach amounts in excess of 100 mm by this evening.
The heaviest rainfall rates are expected through Tuesday afternoon, according to Environment Canada
The weather agency is also warning of possible localized flooding in low-lying areas.
Graham Cox
