Numerous Burnaby residents are still without power after a wind storm battered the area on Friday night (Nov. 4).
Wind gusts as high as 90 km/h were reported as the storm, in the early morning hours of Saturday, Nov. 5, caused widespread power outages on Vancouver Island, the Sunshine Coast and across Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley.
As of this publication, BC Hydro's outage list shows multiple outages still affecting residents with no estimated time of power being restored.
BC Hydro said as of 6:30 on Saturday morning (Nov. 5), there were 145,000 customers without power with the hardest hit areas being Surrey, Abbots, Burnaby and Nanaimo.
"BC Hydro had been closely tracking the storm, and sent many crews home early in the day yesterday so they could rest and be available for overnight work," a press release stated.
"As a result, all available BC Hydro crews and contractor crews worked through the night to repair and restore customers impacted by the storm. One challenge the crews faced during the night was falling trees, which made it too dangerous for them to access some areas to begin repair work.
"The wind knocked down trees and branches – many of them weakened by the summer’s drought – causing them to come into contact with BC Hydro’s electrical equipment. As a result, crews continue to be busy repairing damaged power lines, power poles and other equipment.
"Clean-up work is expected to continue throughout the day. Because of the extensive damage, repair work may take some time and could continue into tomorrow, especially for customers in more remote areas. However, crews are working as quickly as possible to get the largest number of customers restored as soon as they can."
