UPDATE:
11:41 A.M.: An additional 4,879 customers have lost power in Campbell River, according to BC Hydro.
2:30 P.M.: Majority of customers have got their power back, but there are still more power outages on the Island and Coast, according to BC Hydro.
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Over 1,590 BC Hydro customers are without power on Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast because of a fall storm.
According to BC Hydro, most of the outages have taken place on the Sunshine Coast with 999 affected customers.
For Vancouver Island, a total of 597 are still without power.
Campbell River has seen most of the outages with 503 customers currently affected, with 721 customers without power between Campbell River and Powell River.
Courtenay saw 328 without power, with less than 10 people without power. Port Hardy had 67 affected customers.
Powell River has 230 customers without power, while Nanaimo and Sechelt have a lower number of customers without power, with 48 in Sechelt.
An outage took place in North Cowichan this morning, with Duncan now seeing five customers without power.
Ted Olynyk, Community Relations Manager for BC Hydro on Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast says this storm wasn’t as bad as it could have been.
“We know going into this season with the wind and any rain we get, the results could be a lot worse than it normally would,” said Olynyk.
“Vegetation on Vancouver Island has been placed under an incredible amount of stress these past few months, because of the lack of rain.”
He says the main problem with any storm event is the trees and branches coming into contact with their wires, with a lack of moisture making it easier for the trees to come down to those lines.
When it comes to preparing yourself for future events, Olynyk adds you should have an emergency kit.
“If you’re like me maybe you haven’t put away all of your camping gear yet, so it’s an opportunity for you to go through the gear, and make sure you’ve got stuff you can use,” said Olynyk.
“It’s a reminder as we go into storm season, we need to be prepared for an outage. It could be an outage of 2 hours and 30 minutes, or an outage that lasts several days, just make sure you are prepared.”
Hydro adds crews are still investigating the causes behind most outages, with some areas seeing the outages happen because of trees coming down across their wires.
