Power outages continue on parts of Vancouver Island day after windstorm

Over 24 hours after losing power in Tuesday’s windstorm, a block of Chemainus, both homes and businesses, were still in the dark Wednesday as crews were working to restore power.

At Pharmasave, pharmacist Steve Robinson delivered flu shots using light from a cracked open door, without any working lights inside.

“We had a flu shot clinic already set up for today,” said Robinson.

“So we’re just managing with people coming in the exit door and we’re just doing it old school,” he said.

Chemainus Secondary was closed Wednesday since it had no power for computers or classrooms and the local grocery had to turn shoppers away without debit machines working.

Frozen food was packed beneath insulated cooling blankets to keep it from spoiling.

“Well when the power came down we just had to send everyone home,” said 49th Parallel Grocery employee Ken Smith.

Riot Brewing had been scheduled to bottle beer Wednesday but was in the dark. Staff was relieved no product was in vats at the time.

“Nothing was in a vulnerable state when the power went out,” said Riot Brewing sales representative Andrew Matheson.

According to traffic flagger Cody Dales, the destruction from the storm left cleanup crews working hard right across the Island Tuesday and many were back at it at first light Wednesday morning.

“It’s not something you see everyday right,” said Cody Dales.

“Power lines down everywhere, people trying to walk over them, I had a couple of people drive over them. They’re live wires, and it’s high voltage here.”

At the height of the storm’s damage, BC Hydro reported 54,000 customers were in the dark on Vancouver Island.

“You go to our outage map that shows where there’s an outage,” said BC Hydro spokesman Ted Olynyk.

“And pretty much the whole Island was painted red yesterday,” he said.

The Chemainus area was among the final few thousand customers still to be restored.

“We’re down to the final stretch,” said Olynyk.

“And it always takes the longest time.”

Power was restored to Chemainus late Wednesday afternoon, and BC Hydro said crews hoped to have all customers power back on by late Wednesday night.

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