Windstorm: Crews restore power to more than 705,000 customers
Storm was the most damaging in our history
We estimate that 710,000 – nearly 50% of our 1.4 million customers on Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland – lost power due to last Saturday's windstorm. The storm is believed to be the single largest outage event in BC Hydro's history.
Crews managed to restore power to more than 705,000 customers over a span of 72 hours.
You can get outage updates online by list, and by map.
You can also get updates by following us on Twitter @bchydro. If you don't have a Twitter account, you can access updates at www.twitter.com/bchydro.
To report an outage or a fallen power line, call 1 888 POWERON (1 888 769 3766) OR *49376 (*HYDRO) from any cell phone. You should stay back 10 metres, or at least the length of a bus, from any fallen or sagging power lines.
Many maintenance outages, initially planned for the region, have been postponed. See the list here.
Crews worked to restore power, as safely and quickly as possible
Since last Saturday, crews wroked through 1,800 trouble calls (individual work orders) related to the storm. Typically BC Hydro crews respond to an average of 2,000 trouble calls a month across the province.
We called in workers from Kamloops, Vernon, Prince George, Smithers, Terrace, Williams Lake, Fort St. John, 100 Mile House, Campbell River, Courtenay, Nanaimo, Victoria, Port Alberni, Duncan and Qualicum.
Rrestoration efforts had been hampered at times by adverse weather. For example, saturated soil in certain areas made it unsafe for crews to bring in heavy equipment for repairs.
