Windstorm Wreaks Havoc in Lower Mainland

Update: BC Hydro is continually releasing estimations of when they will restore power to various areas via Twitter. Currently the times range from 12 p.m. for most of Surrey and Langley to 12:30 a.m. on Monday for Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, and Port Moody.

Original story:

The worst windstorm to hit B.C. since 2006 left about half a million people without power on Saturday.

Most of these were residents of the Lower Mainland, and at 5 a.m. on Sunday morning about 187,000 people were still experiencing outages.

WOW! It just snapped off, what a windstorm pic.twitter.com/B2ANc4kHwS

— Mike Farnworth (@mikefarnworthbc) August 29, 2015

“Crews from across the province have worked through the night to restore power to tens of thousands of customers, and continue to make progress,” read a BC Hydro statement. “Public safety issues are addressed first. Crews aim to get power back for highest density areas in order to get as many customers back as possible. We're hoping to restore power to the majority of customers by noon Sunday.”

Crews worked through night last night to restore power to customers affected by yesterday’s strong wind storm. pic.twitter.com/wRIewmw1bA

— Puget Sound Energy (@PSETalk) August 30, 2015

Washington State residents are facing similar problems to British Columbians this morning.

The outages across B.C. have been causing numerous problems in addition to leaving people in the dark. Traffic lights were reported to be out at four-way intersections in Vancouver, and a press release from Surrey RCMP read that a mother walking with her daughter on Saturday afternoon were struck by a falling tree and sent to hospital with life-threatening injuries.

To add to the chaos, people have had trouble accessing bchydro.com since at least Saturday afternoon due to what the company has called “technical issues.”

B.C. residents can report power outages by calling 1 888 POWERON (769 3766) from any telephone line or *HYDRO (48376) from a cell phone.