Thousands remain without power after powerful windstorm hits Prince George region

“We certainly anticipated that there was going to be outages from a big windstorm that was approaching from the coast, and that’s exactly what we got,” Gammer said.

“How bad, you can never tell. The wind can blow and sometimes we actually dodge the bullet. But in this case, we took it really hard. Harder than anybody can remember.”

At the peak of the outage, Gammer says more than 15,000 customers were off the grid, representing roughly one-third of BC Hydro customers in the Prince George area.

The scale of the damage has forced the utility to bring in additional workers.

BC Hydro crews are being supplemented by contractors, while more crews are arriving from other parts of the province, including the Peace region and the Southern Interior.

Gammer says about 40 crews are now working in the Prince George area, with BC Hydro continuing to look for additional resources.

Those efforts have made progress. The number of customers without electricity has fallen from more than 15,000 at the peak to about 3,700.

But some residents, particularly those in rural areas such as Willow River and Upper Fraser, could remain without power for another couple of nights.

Gammer acknowledges that is particularly difficult for people who have already spent several nights without electricity.

“We really are trying to tackle these things as fast as possible,” he said.

BC Hydro is prioritizing outages affecting the largest number of customers first. Gammer likens the electricity distribution system to a tree, with customers on the farthest branches generally being among the last to have service restored following a widespread outage.

That means rural customers can face a longer wait.

“It makes logical sense, but it’s frustrating for the customers who live out there,” Gammer said. “They’ve already had three nights in the dark and we really feel for them.”

The biggest problem facing repair crews is trees.

Powerful winds brought entire trees down onto electrical lines, rather than simply knocking loose individual branches.

That can turn what might otherwise be a relatively straightforward repair into a much larger job.

In some locations, crews may have to replace poles, cross arms, electrical lines and transformers before power can be restored.

Vegetation crews are working alongside BC Hydro’s line crews, clearing fallen trees and debris so damaged infrastructure can be repaired or replaced.

Gammer says Prince George was among the hardest-hit regions in British Columbia during the storm. Vancouver Island was also hit hard, but he says the Prince George region had the highest number of customers still without electricity at this stage of the restoration effort.

The work is also becoming more complicated as the largest outages are repaired.

Once power is restored to the main portions of the electrical system, smaller and more isolated outages can become apparent. A problem affecting an individual home or small group of customers may previously have been hidden within a much larger outage.

BC Hydro is therefore asking customers who remain without electricity later in the week to contact the utility.

“If you’re still out, say on Wednesday, give us a call, let us know,” Gammer said.

He says restoring the larger sections of the network can reveal smaller problems farther down the system.

For crews, the immediate task remains repairing damaged infrastructure and clearing the trees that brought so much of the local electrical system down.

For thousands of customers, the wait that began Friday is getting shorter.

But for some residents on the outskirts of Prince George and in rural communities, BC Hydro warns it may still be another couple of nights before the lights come back on.

by Cheryl Jahn

Thousands remain without power after powerful windstorm hits Prince George region

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