Apocalyptic storm unleashes complete mayhem in British Columbia, Canada

Crews in Vancouver worked through the night in order to restore power to hundreds of thousands of customers left without, after a powerful windstorm whipped through Lower Mainland, B.C. on Saturday.

 

Up to 500,000 customers were left in the dark as gale force winds toppled trees and knocked down hydro lines across the region. As of Sunday 10 a.m. PDT, crews had managed to whittle that number down to approximately 180,000.

 

Most outages were reported across the Greater Vancouver Area, where wind gusted to more than 90 kilometres per hour. 

 

BC Hydro reported that they are hoping to have electricity restored to most areas by Monday. Additional personnel have been called in to relief crew members that worked long hours through the overnight to get a handle on the number of outages.

Officials urged people to stay indoors and off the roads as damaging gusts and heavy rain raked Vancouver Island and the South Coast, in the most damaging storm the area has seen since 2006.

 

At least one person was seriously injured during the height of Saturday’s storm. A woman in Surrey is facing life-threatening injuries after she was struck by a falling tree while out walking with her daughter.

 

South of the border, the same system took a deadly turn in the Pacific Northwest. At least two people were killed by falling trees in Washington state on Saturday. One man was driving when a tree came crashing down on top of his car. A 10-year-old girl was playing outside at a friend’s house when she was struck and killed by a fallen tree branch.

 

Environment Canada issued wind warnings for Metro Vancouver and the surrounding areas early Saturday afternoon, with gusts forecast to reach 90 km/h.

 

Soon after, Stanley Park was closed to the public. The east side of the park has since been reopened as crews work to clear the remaining trees and debris caused by the storm.

 

A number of ferry crossings were cancelled or delayed due to rough seas, and the Vancouver SkyTrain was temporarily delayed after a tree fell across the tracks, smashing the front of an oncoming train.

 

According to our forecasters, a summer’s worth of drought has made trees in the area vulnerable to the force of Saturday’s ‘fall-like’ storm.

 

“Many trees have become potentially stressed under severe drought conditions and their weak root systems were ill-prepared to deal with this ‘fall-like’ storm,” explains Weather Network meteorologist Tyler Hamilton. “The trees still have full canopies and deciduous trees have all their leaves.. This can act like a sail in the strong, gusty winds and the extra weight of wet leaves often proves too much for brittle branches to handle.”

 

Wind storms of this nature are more commonly associated with the fall season. “Subsequent storms after the first fall storm seem to cause less damage, as nature does some natural pruning of its own,” Hamilton says.

Courtesy of theweathernetwork.com

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