Thousands of BC Hydro customers on Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast are without power as a storm system moves through the region.
BC Hydro was reporting more than 19,000 customers without power on the North Island, with crews responding to nearly 50 outages. Almost 3,000 customers on the South Island were also without power as of Friday.
In Powell River, more than 2,000 customers were affected by an outage, while another 2,000-plus customers were without power in Pender Harbour. BC Hydro said most of the outages were caused by trees falling onto power lines.
Environment Canada has issued rainfall warnings for parts of the B.C. coast. It says this is the first potent storm in a series of wet and windy weather systems expected to affect the coast into next week.
The outages come as the storm moves through a region already exposed to strong winds and heavy rain. Crews from BC Hydro are working to restore service across the affected areas, though the utility has not given a timeline for full restoration in the witnesses' reporting.
Residents on the North Island, the South Island, the Sunshine Coast and in Powell River and Pender Harbour are among those affected, with the outages spread across a wide stretch of coastal British Columbia. The concentration of outages on the North Island reflects the size of the disruption there, where more than 19,000 customers were without service at the time of reporting.
The rainfall warnings cover parts of the B.C. coast, and Environment Canada's assessment is that the current storm is only the first of several. The agency describes the coming period as a series of wet and windy systems that could keep pressure on the grid and on repair crews into the week ahead.
Because the principal cause of the interruptions is trees falling onto power lines, the outages are likely to continue as long as strong winds persist. Customers in the affected communities are being advised to keep their distance from downed lines and to report hazards to BC Hydro.