Image: BC Hydro / BC Hydro says tens of thousands of customers have lost power due to wind storms across the Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley. Thousands of customers in Chilliwack and Abbotsford lost power for several hours Monday.

By Mike Vanden Bosch

Power outage in the Fraser Valley

Update: Thousands of BC Hydro customers in Chilliwack still without power Monday evening

Nov 4, 2024 | 10:09 AM

UPDATE 6:30 P.M., MONDAY: The biggest power outage that remains in Chilliwack starts just east of Yarrow and continues like a straight line east along Chilliwack Lake Road all the way to Chilliwack Lake. Nearly 2,400 customers don’t have power as of 6:30 p.m. Monday evening.

Cheam First Nation wrote on Facebook at 6:25 p.m. Monday night that the First Nation band has no power and wires are still down. In response to a comment about no power in parts of Rosedale/Popkum, Cheam FN said, “Same on the reserve, not a single hydro truck…. Wires still down. Neither area is showing on the outage map.”

The biggest outage in Abbotsford as of 6:30 p.m. Monday evening is north of 0 Avenue, east of 264 Avenue, south of Fraser Highway and west of Bradner Avenue; it’s affecting 569 customers.

UPDATE 5:25 P.M., MONDAY: BC Hydro says all available crews will continue to work throughout the night and into the day Tuesday until all customers are restored. “We want to thank our customers for their patience, and we’ll continue to provide updated estimates for power restoration as they become available,” BC Hydro wrote on X/Twitter at 4:21 p.m. Power appears to have been restored to most of Cultus Lake, though a smaller outage north of Cultus Lake is still present. Post Creek, a remote Chilliwack subdivision just west of Chilliwack Lake, lost power at 1:20 p.m. Monday afternoon due to the fierce wind storm. Approximately 86 customers are impacted.

UPDATE 3:15 P.M. MONDAY: There are approximately 20 power outages in Chilliwack. Over 150 customers in Chilliwack Mountain, over 1,600 customers in Rosedale and Popkum, and over 150 customers in Ryder Lake are still without power as of 3:15 p.m. Monday afternoon due to fierce, blustery winds that accompanied the latest storm system in the Fraser Valley. Over 2,000 customers in Abbotsford are without power. Altogether, over 91,000 customers in British Columbia have lost power today.

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UPDATE 2:30 P.M., MONDAY: Chilliwack Fire Department and Chilliwack River Valley Fire Department have responded to calls of wires down at 8272 Upper Prairie Road, 51780 Hack Brown Road and Chilliwack Lake Road near the Tamihi Bridge. Chilliwack Fire tells dispatch at 1:57 p.m. there is a tree down across Hydro lines on Elkview Road near Chilliwack Fire Hall No. 5 (Ryder Lake). Chilliwack Fire was also dispatched to Bamford Road for a report of wires down there.

UPDATE: FRASER VALLEY — BC Hydro is reporting power outages in Chilliwack, Abbotsford, and Mission as a powerful wind storm sweeps through the Fraser Valley. According to the BC Hydro outage map, 1137 customers lost power south of Vedder Mountain Road in the largest outage in Chilliwack at 11:35 a.m. Monday. The largest outage in Abbotsford is impacting 1585 customers west of Mt. Lehman Road and south of 62nd Ave. It’s not clear how long it will take Hydro crews to restore electricity to the areas that are affected.

Original story:

FRASER VALLEY — BC Hydro says over 5,000 customers in Langley and Surrey are without power Monday morning, presumably due to high winds from the arrival of a potent storm system.

BC Hydro posted on X/Twitter at 9:58 a.m. that repair crews are on their way to an outage impacting 5,621 customers in Langley and Surrey. Hydro did not specify a cause but simply said it’s under investigation.

Crews are expected to arrive by 10:55 a.m.

Multiple outages are being reported in Surrey, Langley and the surrounding area, according to the BC Hydro outage map on its website.

Environment Canada said over the weekend that strong winds and heavy rain across Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley overnight might impact communities with washouts and power outages. The weather agency said a “potent storm system” is arriving late Sunday on the south coast and will bring a “short but intense episode of rain” with peak intensities during the morning commute. Early indications called for 40 to 70 mm of rain along the north shore of Metro Vancouver, meteorologists said in their statement. Strong southeasterly winds would begin in Vancouver early on Monday and would also spread up the Fraser Valley, including Abbotsford, Chilliwack, and Hope, Environment Canada forecasted.