No BC Hydro crews assigned after thousands lose power in Hope

HOPE — No BC Hydro crews have been assigned as of Monday evening at 7:05 p.m. after thousands lost power in Hope, presumably due to the windstorm that walloped the eastern Fraser Valley.

The first of many Hope-area outages commenced at 3:24 p.m. for 1,122 customers in Ruby Creek, Floods and Silver Creek. No crews have been assigned there.

Image: BC Hydro / An outage affecting over 1,100 customers in Silver Creek, Floods, Ruby Creek, Laidlaw and west Hope.

One outage impacting 963 customers is affecting east Hope, Othello and the Coquihalla Highway corridor. Those customers lost power at 3:28 p.m. No crews have been assigned there.

Image: BC Hydro / Hope/Othello area outage.

Another outage in central Hope is affecting 750 customers. They lost power at 3:31 p.m. Again, no crews have been assigned there.

BC Hydro spokesperson Kevin Aquino says strong wind has left about 70,000 BC Hydro customers in the Lower Mainland, Sunshine Coast, Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands without power as of 5:30 p.m., down from a peak of more than 90,000 customers this afternoon.

As of 5:30 p.m., the hardest hit areas are:

• Squamish with 11,200 customers without power
• Duncan with 9,800 customers without power
• Hope with 6,400 customers without power

High winds have caused trees and branches to fall onto electrical infrastructure, resulting in extensive damage, Aquino said.

“BC Hydro crews and contractors are currently working to repair damage to power lines, power poles and other equipment in an effort to restore customers as quickly and safely as possible. Due to the extensive damage, there will be some customers without power overnight,” BC Hydro said.