Update: Almost 9,000 people in North Vancouver Island remain without power this morning after a strong windstorm Tuesday.
Those areas that remain affected include North Cowichan, Nanaimo, Campbell River and Port Alberni.
B.C. Hydro reports the windstorm, downed wires and fallen tress across power lines as causes for the outages. In all cases crews have been assigned and the estimated time of arrival is between 10 a.m. and noon.
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Two people were hospitalized after a tree fell on a mobile home near Port Alberni during a windstorm that hit parts of Vancouver Island on Tuesday.
Chief Lucas Banton said the Cherry Creek Volunteer Fire Department was called about 7 a.m. and joined by crews from Port Alberni.
“We received so much rain in the last while that the ground was very saturated and it was quite gusty up there,” Banton said. “It took out a tree that went across the creek, and the top of the tree went through the home and knocked down a bunch of other trees, a lot of debris.”
Wind also played havoc with B.C. Ferries for much of the day, with the first sailings on the Tsawwassen-Swartz Bay route not arriving until 3 p.m. Eight sailings were cancelled.
Service was temporarily suspended on nine routes, said B.C. Ferries spokeswoman Deborah Marshall, including Tsawwassen-Duke Point, Tsawwassen-Southern Gulf Islands, Horseshoe Bay-Departure Bay, Comox-Powell River, Powell River-Texada, Denman-Hornby, Campbell River-Quadra and Quadra-Cortez.
The strong winds are not expected to last.
“Obviously in November we closely monitor the wind situation and the forecast from Environment Canada, but I think we’ll be good for a little bit,” Marshall said.
High winds resulted in a string of power outages for Island residents, leaving 38,000 customers without power, from Port Alberni to the west coast and Courtenay north, at the peak on Tuesday, said B.C. Hydro spokesman Ted Olynyk. “The storm really hit the west coast and north part of the Island quite hard.”
Environment Canada meteorologist Doug Lundquist said one of the unusual parts of the storm was a combination of snow and thunder around Campbell River Monday night.
He said Tuesday’s highest wind speeds included 117 kilometres per hour on Saturna Island and 102 km/h in Comox.
John Jiang, owner of Saanich Rentals Ltd. on Cedar Hill Cross Road, said half the company’s rental pumps went out the door early in the day on Tuesday.
“Usually when it starts to rain like this, typically our pumps start going out, and the heaters and the fans, because people are having plumbing issues.”
Dehumidifiers to remove extra moisture, often resulting from leaking through roofs, walls and floors, are also in demand at this time of year.
In Courtenay, public works staff rolled out a huge water-filled bladder, called an Aqua Dam, along the walkway by Lewis Park. They know from past years where flooding is most likely to occur, said Kyle Shaw, director of public works services.
The double-layered dam is filled with nearby river water and is about 91 metres long.
Courtenay also has a permanent high wall on Old Island Highway, and a new one-way check valve system in storm drains in the Puntledge Business District to prevent backflow during flooding.
This week, the city experienced everything from pouring rain to thunder, showers and snow. Even so, “overall, we did fare well,” Shaw said. As of Tuesday afternoon, there had been no localized flooding onto land.
However, additional rain is forecast, along with a continuing king tide.
Similar to many other Island locations, Courtenay saw its power go off in some locations on Tuesday, including city hall, which continued operating with a generator, and its public works facilities and parts of downtown. The city hall telephone line remained in service, but the public works phone line was down.
Courtenay reminds citizens to check and clear grates over catch basins, removing any leaves or other debris.
In downtown Victoria, Veronica Sasges, co-owner of the Umbrellatorium and Canery in Fan Tan Alley, said the shop is seeing a steady stream of customers buying umbrellas for themselves and as Christmas gifts.
See-through bubble umbrellas are popular right now, not only because of visibility but because users can hold them close to their heads, Sasges said.
Anything colourful is also popular, she said. “People want something bright overhead on a gloomy, rainy day.”
Cloud and showers are forecast in the capital region over the next few days.
