Another turbulent stretch of weather has left thousands of Vancouver Island residents dealing with power outages, downed branches, and soaked streets after strong winds and heavy rain swept through the region Tuesday and into the early hours of Wednesday.
It has been a notable couple of weeks weatherwise in Victoria and across Vancouver Island. From steady rain to windstorms, the recent systems have felt like classic BC weather.
Tuesday’s storm brought periods of heavy rain, strong winds, and even thunder and lightning in some areas overnight, creating challenging conditions through the day and overnight.
By 6 a.m. Wednesday, about 120,000 BC Hydro customers were without power across the province, including nearly 16,000 on Vancouver Island.
As of this publication, power had been restored to many homes and businesses, but just over 5,000 customers on Vancouver Island were still without electricity.
Of those, 3,242 were located in the southern Vancouver Island area.
According to BC Hydro, this was the third major weather-related outage event this week. The utility company said crews have been working around the clock in difficult conditions to restore service as quickly and safely as possible.
Some of the largest remaining outages Wednesday morning were reported in the East Sooke area, where approximately 1,500 customers lost power around 3 a.m. due to high winds.
Environment Canada had issued rain and wind warnings for Vancouver Island on Tuesday, including forecasts of wind gusts reaching up to 100 kilometres an hour in Greater Victoria.
Those warnings were lifted Wednesday morning as conditions eased, though a wind warning remained in effect for the Fraser Valley, along with a special weather statement for Metro Vancouver and parts of the southern Interior.
BC Hydro is also reminding the public that downed power lines are considered an emergency.
Anyone who encounters a fallen line is urged to stay at least 10 metres away and call 911.
While the worst of this system has passed, the past few weeks have been a reminder of how quickly conditions can change.
