90,000 still without power after storm: BC Hydro

Ninety thousand BC Hydro customers were still without power Tuesday morning as crews continued to repair damage from the massive storm on Sunday and Monday.

Power lines were left hanging loosely on poles, causing outages in many Lower Mainland areas.
(CBC)

It could be Wednesday before some areas have power restored, BC Hydro spokeswoman Gillian Robinson said. At the peak of the storm, 196,000 customers were without power.

"Based on the damage we are seeing, we are advising customers that it will be one to two days that power will be out and they should prepare for one to two days of outages," Robinson told CBC News Monday evening.

"We have lines down. We have trees across the wires and we have branches on our wires as well," she said.

The hardest hit area was the Fraser Valley east of Vancouver, where 41,000 customers were still in the dark on Tuesday morning. Another 21,000 customers in Metro Vancouver were waiting for the lights to come on as well.

Elsewhere 11,000 customers on Vancouver Island and 4,000 customers in the Thompson-Shuswap area in the Interior were waiting for repair crews.

About 3,100 Telus customers in the White Rock and Surrey area were also waiting for their phone service to be restored Tuesday morning.

A Lions Bay flag was ripped to shreds during a massive storm Monday morning that wreaked havoc along coastal B.C.
(CBC)

To deal with the situation, Robinson recommends people gather extra blankets, water and food, as well as a flashlight. Candles are not a safe idea, she said.

Robinson said the storm that first hit the coast Sunday evening was nearly as bad as one last year on Dec. 14 that left 250,000 customers without power.

Emergency centre opens in Lions Bay

In Lions Bay, officials have opened an emergency centre to help those who are without electricity, as power has been knocked out to the entire village, north of Horseshoe Bay.

A tall tree toppled and crashed into Kam Ip's Vancouver home during Monday's wind storm.
(CBC)

It's not the first time Lions Bay has faced falling trees and power outages. Last year, the community of 1,500 went without power for a week.

"Building on our experience of a year ago when we were out for six days and the village suffered substantial losses and people were greatly inconvenienced, we've decided to open our emergency centre right away," Mayor Max Wyman said Monday.

Some homes were also damaged in the storm. Kam Ip woke up Monday morning to the worst the storm was dishing out. A large tree, uprooted by the winds, crashed into his Vancouver home.

"I was having breakfast downstairs," he said. "And the whole house shook like a bomb."

Meanwhile, at ferry terminals up and down the coast, thousands of long-weekend travellers spent Monday afternoon waiting for ferry service to return to normal, after most south coast runs were cancelled Monday morning.

Ferry service resumed Monday afternoon, but the cancelled sailings created long waits for many routes.