Image: Ryan T. Wilson / Power lines were struck by a tree on Columbia Valley Highway Wednesday night amid a strong windstorm in the eastern Fraser Valley.
Power outages

54 outages in Chilliwack Wednesday night, over 8,200+ without power amid fierce windstorm

Mar 11, 2026 | 8:42 PM

UPDATE 10:25 P.M.: There are now 54 power outages in Chilliwack affecting over 8,280 customers in Chilliwack as of 10:25 p.m. Wednesday night.

One of the biggest outages in Chilliwack involved 4,082 customers, primarily west of Ford Road, north of Prairie Central Road and southeast of Yale Road.

Image: BC Hydro / As of 10:25 p.m. Wednesday night, there are 54 outages in Chilliwack affecting 8,283 customers.

There’s another significant outage south of Vedder Mountain Road involving 1,140 customers.

Another 1,100+ customers in Cultus Lake have lost power as of 9:16 p.m.

Emergency dispatchers have asked Chilliwack-area firefighters to switch to their talk-about-channels due to call volume at 9:27 p.m.

Emergency dispatch has been paging Chilliwack-area fire crews almost nonstop since 8:45 p.m., and that continued through to 10:10 p.m.

Original story:

CHILLIWACK — Amid strong wind gusts of up to 90 km/h in the eastern Fraser Valley, over 1,000 customers in the Chilliwack River Valley and Ryder Lake have lost power.

According to BC Hydro’s online dashboard, electricity went out for 251 customers north of Chilliwack Lake Road, west of Elkview Road, east of Extrom Road and south of Brownlee Road at 8:20 p.m. Wednesday night.

The cause is under investigation. No crews have been assigned as of 8:36 p.m.

Lights are flickering repeatedly at homes throughout Chilliwack, according to multiple social media reports.

As Fraser Valley Today published this story at 8:42 p.m., it became aware of a second outage in the Chilliwack River Valley affecting 846 customers between Baker Trails and Post Creek, just west of Chilliwack Lake.

Over in the Hope area, 255 customers near Othello and along the Highway 5 corridor lost power at 8:44 p.m. The cause is under investigation. No crew has been assigned as of 8:44 p.m.

Image: BC Hydro.

Another 325 customers lost power Wednesday night west of Harrison Hot Springs in the Morris Valley Road corridor. Their power went out at 8:24 p.m. This area has seen at least two power outages over the last two months.

Image: BC Hydro / An outage west of Harrison Hot Springs.
Columbia Valley Road at Rachel was blocked at one point due to a tree on the road.