Thousands of BC Hydro customers without power on parts of Vancouver Island, Southern Gulf Islands

Thousands of BC Hydro customers are without power on parts of Vancouver Island and the Southern Gulf Islands as rain and wind hit some areas.

Just before 7 p.m., more than 2,000 customers were without power in BC Hydro’s Vancouver Island north region and more than 7000 in the Vancouver Island south region.

North Cowichan, Ganges, Pender Island, Saturna Island, Ladysmith and Galiano Islan have the most outages. Some of the outages are due to trees down across wires or wires down. Others remain under investigation.

Crews will be heading to multiple outages on #SaltSpringIsland and #PenderIsland affecting 3,000 customers. You can find the latest updates on our mobile site: https://t.co/D5BPyzVhsu pic.twitter.com/8ttDcWwd5g

— BC Hydro (@bchydro) February 1, 2020

Crews will be heading to an outage in the #Tofino area affecting 1,600 customers. You can find the latest info on our mobile site: https://t.co/YGLAliytWL pic.twitter.com/tp5VXTVEER

— BC Hydro (@bchydro) February 1, 2020

You can check for the latest power outages on the BC Hydro website.

West Vancouver Island is under a rainfall and wind warning as an intense low-pressure system with subtropical moisture move through the area. Environment Canada said since Thursday night, 80 to 150 millimetres of rain has fallen over west and inland Vancouver Island. Additional rainfall amounts of 30 to 50 millimetres are expected in both areas tonight before the rain eases Saturday morning.

Southwest winds of 80 km/h are also expected over the west coast Friday evening before dropping to 40 to 60 km/h later in the night.

East Vancouver Island, from Nanoose Bay to Fanny Bay and inland Vancouver Island are still under a rainfall warning. Nanoose Bay to Fanny Bay has seen 30 to 50 mm of rain since Thursday night and additional amounts of 30 to 40 mm are expected tonight.

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