Towns isolated, 250,000 without power as Severe Storm wallops B.C.
Pastor Dale Morgan
Towns isolated, 250,000 without power as Severe Storm wallops B.C.*
VICTORIA - BC - CANADA (CP) - Entire towns were cut off and 250,000 B.C.
residents were without power as a powerful Pacific storm packing strong
winds and heavy rains walloped the province on Wednesday.
Hardest hit was the Alberni Valley, where for much of the day the only
highway connecting the valley to the rest of the province was closed
because police feared trees could fall on motorists.
BC Hydro estimated as many as 250,,000 people were without power in
B.C.'s Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island, though crews were working to
restore essential services late Wednesday night.
Trees appeared to be bearing the brunt of the storm.
The storm forced the evacuation of a neighbourhood in West Vancouver
because so many trees were knocked down. Trees took down balconies and
walls in one building and residents were told to spend the night away.
Highway 99 in West Vancouver, known as the Sea-to-Sky highway, was
closed for part of the afternoon due to debris and several highways on
Vancouver Island were also blocked by fallen trees.
A building under construction in Vancouver was also apparently toppled
by the storm.
No one was killed when the building, about four-storeys high, toppled
around noon because the workers were on a coffee break, said Capt. Rob
Jones Cook of the Vancouver Fire Department.
The coast has been buffeted by winds gusting up to 100 kilometres an
hour in some areas as the rain poured down in buckets. Environment
Canada predicted up to 110 millimetres would fall through the day in
some areas.
Five rivers on Vancouver Island were in danger of flooding.
The River Forecast Centre said the Cowichan, Chemainus, Englishman and
Tsolum Rivers on the east side of the Island and the Gold River on the
west side would soon exceed flood stage.
The rivers run through Duncan, Courtenay, Parksville, Chemainus and Gold
River, but there was no word of any evacuations.
But the same storm also brought snow and smiles to resort operators in
Whistler, where the ski and snowboard season is about to begin.
In Port Alberni, on Vancouver Island, Valorie Smith had to take a
different route to her job at a grocery store because branches were
littered across the road on her regular route.
"Branches were hitting my husband's new truck. I could hardly see,
sheets of rain couldn't be taken off the windshield fast enough, I was
really scared."
The RCMP were asking people to stay home and off the highway, said
Russell Dyson, deputy city manager in Port Alberni, where torrential
rains and persistent high winds brought power outages and a few
localized flash floods.
"The gods must be crazy!" said Dyson.
Vince Louzon, of Port Alberni's city works yard, said storm drains were
overflowing. Pumps were given out to some residents in a particularly
hard-hit neighbourhood, but they were left useless when the power went out.
"This is the worst rain event anybody in the yard can remember," Louzon
said. "We've got about 50 basements. . . that were flooded at last count."
Pandemonium reigned Wednesday morning at the Daily Roast coffee bar in
Sechelt, B.C., one of the few spots with power on the Sunshine Coast
north of Vancouver.
"It's nasty out there," said Candy, a harried barrista. "We've had a
steady lineup for the past hour out the door."
Harbour Air cancelled its float plane service between Vancouver and
Victoria and Nanaimo, although West Coast Air was able to maintain
flights between Vancouver and Victoria.
Wind gusts forced B.C. Ferries to cancel a near-record number of
sailings, including the major routes linking the B.C. mainland to
Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands.
Ferries on a couple of minor routes in Washington state were cancelled
and the ferry between northern Vancouver Island and Prince Rupert was
delayed to give travellers more time to get to the ferry after mudslides
on Highway 19 between Sayward and Port Hardy.
The situation was different in the resort community of Whistler.
While there were some minor power disruptions about 5 a.m., they
appeared to be confined to specific residential areas and were repaired
quickly.
In the mountains north of Vancouver, the torrential rain soaking the
lower levels fell as snow.
Search and rescue officials in B.C. reported only minor incidents on
coastal waters Wednesday, despite the high winds.
"We've had a number of incidents that were related to the heavy weather
but everything's ended up happily," reported marine controller Mike
Stacey at the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Victoria.
He said there was ample warning of the storm so most people had
"battened down" beforehand.
Despite the rain, the Chilliwack River in the eastern Fraser Valley was
reported to be receding.
Complicating matters, in the pre-dawn hours, a tsunami watch was issued
for the outer coast of the province after a strong 8.3-magnitude
earthquake northeast of Japan.
It was cancelled after several hours when regions of Japan and Alaska
reported only minor 30-centimetre waves.