Those in greater Duncan didn't feel much at all but to the north and south and even to the east high winds were wreaking havoc within the Cowichan Valley and beyond on Monday, morning, Nov. 4.
"BC Hydro has been carefully planning for this storm and has all available BC Hydro crews and contractor crews responding," said an operational update issed by BC Hydro at 11:30 a.m. Monday. "After a multi-year drought, vegetation has been weakened across the province, making it more susceptible to wind. As a result, many dead and damaged tress and branches have fallen, causing them to come into contact with BC Hydro’s electrical equipment. Crews are busy repairing damaged power lines, poles and other equipment."
The lights went out for just under 1,000 B.C. Hydro customers in the Chemainus area at 10:00 a.m. thanks to the wind storm. An hour later, crews had yet to be assigned to the area.
A few properties near in Crofton were left in the dark around 10:45 a.m., also with no crew assigned. The same went for roughly 30 customers on Bell McKinnon Road, who lost electricity at 10:30 a.m.
Some 17 customers lost power at 10:20 a.m. in Honeymoon Bay and the lights went out for 83 customers at 10:10 a.m. in Cowichan Bay. More than 130 more around Cowichan Station were affected at 10:40 a.m as trees downed lines there as well.
In Mill Bay, the power went out at 9:39 a.m. but the outage was under investigation and a crew had been assigned.
The biggest outage game south of Shawnigan Lake Road when 1,465 customers were left in the dark with no crew assigned. Trees knocked out power lines and fell onto the road, complicating matters repair crews.
North of Shawnigan Lake there were pockets of outages with the biggest being in Shawnigan Beach Estates with 460 without juice.
