50-plus outages in Chilliwack Wednesday night, 14,550 without power amid fierce windstorm

UPDATE #3, 5:55 A.M. THURSDAY MORNING: As of 5:55 a.m., there are now 18 outages leaving 11,663 customers without power.

UPDATE #2, 10:57 P.M.: There are 53 outages impacting 14,550 customers in Chilliwack, according to BC Hydro’s online dashboard at 10:57 p.m.

UPDATE 10:25 P.M.: There are now 54 power outages in Chilliwack affecting over 8,280 customers in Chilliwack as of 10:25 p.m. Wednesday night, according to BC Hydro’s online dashboard.

One of the biggest outages in Chilliwack involved 4,082 customers, primarily west of Ford Road, north of Prairie Central Road and southeast of Yale Road.

Image: BC Hydro / As of 10:25 p.m. Wednesday night, there are 54 outages in Chilliwack affecting 8,283 customers.

There’s another significant outage south of Vedder Mountain Road in Chilliwack involving 1,140 customers.

Another 1,100+ customers in Cultus Lake have lost power as of 9:16 p.m.

Emergency dispatchers have asked Chilliwack-area firefighters to switch to their talk-about-channels due to high 9-1-1 call volume at 9:27 p.m.

Emergency dispatch has been paging Chilliwack-area fire crews almost nonstop since 8:45 p.m., and that continued through to 11 p.m.

Trees have reportedly fallen and knocked down power/primary lines near Vedder Road and Stevenson Road. Fire crews have blocked Vedder Road. A City of Chilliwack employee has responded to the scene to provide barricades to block the road.

As of 10:25 p.m., Abbotsford has been largely spared from the magnitude of what Chilliwack experienced. It only has four outages and 1,369 customers without power.

Original story:

CHILLIWACK — Amid strong wind gusts of up to 90 km/h in the eastern Fraser Valley, over 1,000 customers in the Chilliwack River Valley and Ryder Lake have lost power.

According to BC Hydro’s online dashboard, electricity went out for 251 customers north of Chilliwack Lake Road, west of Elkview Road, east of Extrom Road and south of Brownlee Road at 8:20 p.m. Wednesday night.

The cause is under investigation. No crews have been assigned as of 8:36 p.m.

Lights are flickering repeatedly at homes throughout Chilliwack, according to multiple social media reports.

As Fraser Valley Today published this story at 8:42 p.m., it became aware of a second outage in the Chilliwack River Valley affecting 846 customers between Baker Trails and Post Creek, just west of Chilliwack Lake.

Over in the Hope area, 255 customers near Othello and along the Highway 5 corridor lost power at 8:44 p.m. The cause is under investigation. No crew has been assigned as of 8:44 p.m.

Image: BC Hydro.

Another 325 customers lost power Wednesday night west of Harrison Hot Springs in the Morris Valley Road corridor. Their power went out at 8:24 p.m. This area has seen at least two power outages over the last two months.

Image: BC Hydro / An outage west of Harrison Hot Springs.