Power to Tahsis and Zeballos was restored Sunday after storms caused extensive damage, leaving hundreds of people without power for the past week.
B.C. Hydro said in a tweet posted Sunday evening that repairs had been completed and power had been restored.
“Thank you to the Ehattesaht and Nuchatlaht First Nations and the communities of Zeballos and Tahsis for their patience and understanding while work was complete,” the tweet said.
More than 700 B.C. Hydro customers on the west side of Vancouver Island had been without power since the lights went out on Jan. 2, with the exception of a short reprieve Monday.
The transmission circuit failure cut the power, but recent snow and windstorms have made road access impossible to difficult, resulting in supply issues for communities.
Helicopters allowed crews to drop into areas where the snow is “shoulder height,” said Ted Olynyk, manager of community relations for B.C. Hydro, but their use is weather dependent. One day an incoming storm caused crews to be extracted early.
The Strathcona Regional District said it supported the two villages and three First Nations that were without power, delivering food and medication by freight truck to Zeballos and fuel by 4x4 vehicle to Tahsis.
Olynyk said this storm and the damage it’s caused has “certainly been one of the longest and one of the most challenging for our crews and those impacted by the outages.”
“What makes this one different is access in and out of the communities,” he said. “It’s one thing for us to be able to make our repairs but it’s another thing when communities aren’t able to use access routes.”
Fuel was needed for commercial generators and people needed firewood, he said.
Meanwhile, trees and wires down in Campbell River and Courtenay on the east side of the Island caused power outages Saturday night through Sunday for a couple of hundred customers.
