UPDATE: Power is expected to be restored by 5 p.m for many regions of the North Island.
At 5:00, crews are planning to re-energize the transmission system north of Woss, routing power to all distribution lines. At that time they expect 90 per cent of North Island customers to have power restored. It’s possible there are still repairs needed along the distribution lines that will be caught after the transmission system is restored.
The exception is Zeballos which had extra damage to its system. BC Hydro anticipates restoring power to those customers by end of day Thursday.
Port Hardy, Port McNeill, Port Alice, Coal Harbour, Sointula and Alert Bay are all scheduled to have power restored by 5 p.m. Nov. 18.
Original article follows:
BC Hydro has told the Gazette that all the crews that can be spared, including contracted crews, have been dispatched to the North Island.
Most of the crews are concentrating on repairing distribution lines that were damaged in Tuesday’s storm, so that when the transmission lines are powered back on, most North Islanders will get power again.
Crews have identified the problem on the transmission lines north of Woss, and are working on the problem.
Rumours have circulated online that it could take BC Hydro a week to restore power, but BC Hydro spokesperson for the Island, Ted Olynyk unequivocally dispelled that story.
Power could be restored as early as Wednesday evening, he said. Most of the North Island lost power mid-day on Tuesday.
This storm was almost as bad as the devastating 2018 storm.
“This was a very deep and low pressure system, and unfortunately we know this will happen more often. We know that we are getting more storms and they are getting stronger because of climate change,” Olynyk said.
He said there has been a 117 per cent increase in the number of storms BC Hydro crews have had to deal with since 2014.
Stay tuned for updates.