Thousands affected by another windstorm on Vancouver Island

WATCH: The day after another wind storm hit Vancouver Island, thousands woke up once again without power — Even in the city. But as Luisa Alvarez tells us, it was the rural areas like East Sooke that were the hardest hit.

Preliminary reports by Environment Canada estimate the overnight wind speeds ranged between 74-100 km/h for the greater Victoria region. Gusts of winds strong enough to do enough damage that left thousands without power.

According to B.C. Hydro at peak outage, 6,000 customers on Vancouver Island were affected.

“We had three crews get called this morning out towards Port Renfrew Jordan river area and a bit out in Sooke and the Gulf Islands as usual,” said Allteck power-line technician Jamie Laforce.

With trees down and branches, scattered crews were out early for the cleanup.

Some crews got the call at four a.m. this morning. They’re on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week and for some Sunday was supposed to be their day off it would have only been their second day off since December 20th when the previous wind storm hit.

“We are very thankful for the work they do they earn their overtime,” said East Sooke resident Jay Vineen.

Part of  East Sooke road was closed after a tree fell but was quickly re-opened to one lane alternating traffic while crews fixed the downed power lines.

“About a 20-inch fir tree came down and took out about four spans, five spans of wire here not too bad but it takes a while to fix, ” said Laforce.

Most of the Islands power was restored by early morning but East Sooke was the area most affected and by mid-afternoon, hundreds were still in the dark.

But locals say they are used to it.

“One of the joys of country living you have to expect some power outages sometimes,” said Gaye Edgar.

“This is our third power outage and we actually moved to East Sooke in November,” said another area resident Julie Oakley.

And while still inconvenient they make do.

“In East Sooke so everyone has a generator when we need it,” said Vineen.

B.C. Hydro says all power was restored just before three Sunday afternoon.

Crews can take a break Monday but should brace themselves for Tuesday when the next storm is expected to hit.