High winds brought down trees, knocking out power to thousands on Vancouver Island, and led to a handful of ferry cancellations on Wednesday.
B.C. Ferries cancelled several round trips between Brentwood Bay and Mill Bay, but ferries on the major routes remained in service.
B.C. Hydro reported that more than 19,000 customers were without electricity overnight Tuesday across Metro Vancouver, the Sunshine Coast and southern Vancouver Island.
As of about 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, power had been restored to all but 3,500 B.C. Hydro customers on the south Island, while fewer than 50 remained in the dark on the north Island. Another 3,500 remained without power in the Lower Mainland and Sunshine Coast.
Meanwhile, a tree came down on the Trans-Canada Highway near West Shore Parkway, blocking the northbound lane early Wednesday evening, said Emcon Services Inc., the road and bridge maintenance contractor for south Vancouver Island.
The Langford engineering department said the tree was 100 feet long and would take several hours to remove.
In Greater Victoria, the combination of dry arctic air and the wind caused the temperature to feel closer to zero, despite sunny skies. As a result, the region’s extreme weather protocol was activated on Wednesday evening, making extra shelter beds available for those who need them.
Thirty beds were available at the Salvation Army Addiction and Rehabilitation Centre location in Victoria.
“The cold weather is especially hard on people living on the streets,” said Salvation Army spokeswoman Patricia Mamic. “Many of these people already deal with health conditions that can be worsened and even become fatal when the temperature drops drastically.”
Special weather statements were issued for Metro Vancouver, east to the central Rockies and north to the Peace region as a blast of arctic air plunged Interior temperatures as low as –25 C.
The inner south coast was milder but the frigid air, along with winds packing gusts up to 90 km/h, created conditions that felt close to –10 C, and those winds were also sweeping across Greater Victoria and the southern Gulf Islands.
The weather office says the wind and snow will ease in all areas, although it warns the icy arctic chill will hover and deepen over the province for the rest of the week.
