Northern Vancouver Island was without power for over 24 hours last week thanks to a "bomb cyclone" raging across the coast, causing the power to go out after 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 19 and not coming back on for specific areas until around 8 p.m. the next day.
"It was a pretty significant event that hit the whole island from Port Renfrew up to Port Hardy," stated BC Hydro spokesperson Ted Olynyk when asked to comment. "At its peak we had about 150,000 customers out just on the island alone, which shows how substantial the event was."
Olynyk noted this storm was one of the most extreme to hit Vancouver Island in decades.
"The amount of broken poles and trees down on our wires was just astronomical, and we tried to bring power back to as many customers as quickly as we could. In total we had about 90 crews working towards restoration for the whole island."
Olynyk confirmed that when BC Hydro crews managed to get the power turned back on Wednesday evening, roughly 15 minutes later, a transformer blew in Port Hardy, extending that area's power outage until around 10 p.m.
He added the last area in Northern Vancouver Island to regain power was the remote hamlet of Winter Harbour, which is located on the far reaches of Quatsino Sound.
Vancouver Island wasn't the only region to get hit hard by the bomb cyclone. There were more than 320,000 BC Hydro customers without power at its peak.
