Residents of the Village of Anacla were reminded Wednesday of the effects of the storm season when the power went out.
Electricity was cut off to the Huu-ay-aht First Nations’ community of over 100 residents, located near the southern portion of Barkley Sound, from 9:34 a.m. – 2:34 p.m. on Oct. 18. BC Hydro believes that a tree branch interfered with a distribution line, then cleared itself.
“The crews patrolled the line, and after patrolling it they didn’t notice anything, so they reclosed on the line and it held,” said Karla Louwers of BC Hydro media relations.
Power was previously cut off to Anacla on Oct. 1 due to what the provincial utility believes was another tree-related incident. Outages were not reported in nearby Bamfield or in the Ditidaht First Nation’s settlement on Nitinaht Lake, as distribution to those communities is not connected to the line fault that affected Anacla.
In Vancouver Island’s north 7,000 hydro customers lost power Wednesday after a cottonwood tree damaged a transmission line north of Woss. The outage went from 10:26 a.m. – 6:16 p.m., affecting Port Hardy, Port McNeil and Alert Bay.
Persistent rain and wind challenged the response, as weather prevented BC Hydro from using a helicopter to locate where the line was affected. Crews also drive along lines to locate a fault, but Louwers said there are times that heavy rains can hinder this approach.
“In some cases we don’t have visibility from driving, so crews in many cases will actually have to trek in by foot, so that takes longer, ” she said, adding that the transmission fault north of Woss was located by a forestry crew. “Luckily with the transmission outage it was Western Forest Products that were close to where the fault was, found it and reported it.”
Stormy weather is expected to continue along the west side of Vancouver Island over the weekend with showers and a risk of thunderstorms. Environment Canada issued a gale warning Thursday for the Island’s northwest coast, with southwest winds of up to 25 knots intensifying to 35-45 knots southeast by Friday evening. Waves were expected to be six metres in the north Thursday, and up to seven metres off Vancouver Island’s south coast.
Across British Columbia 140,000 customers lost power when the fall’s first severe storm hit the province on Tuesday, leading BC Hydro to encourage people to prepare for future outages.
“Unplanned outages double in storm season,” said Louwers.
Crews work to mitigate the risk of the West Coast`s storm season, said BC Hydro.
“Crews perform regular maintenance work to help minimize the impact bad weather can have on the electrical system,” stated BC Hydro in an Oct. 18 bulletin. “This includes inspecting trees growing near BC Hydro infrastructure to identify potential problems, replacing aging power poles and upgrading equipment to improve reliability.”
BC Hydro customers are encouraged to prepare for storms by packing an emergency kit, including items like a flashlight, extra batteries, a first-aid kit, bottled water and ready-to-eat non-perishable food. If a power line is down people are warned to keep 10 metres away.
