15,000+ lack power in Langley, Surrey Saturday; Langley RCMP responding to crashes due to fallen trees
Image: Langley RCMP / Langley RCMP say their officers are responding to collisions caused by fallen trees on roadways as strong winds and stormy conditions continue Saturday night.
UPDATE #2, 8:51 P.M.: Langley RCMP posted to social media tonight at 8:39 p.m. that its officers are responding to collisions caused by fallen trees on roadways, as strong winds and stormy conditions continue, and outages abound in Langley, Surrey and surrounding areas.
“Be alert for fallen trees, downed power lines and intersections where traffic signals may be out,” Langley RCMP said. “Drive with caution and treat any intersection with non-functioning lights as a four-way stop. If you don’t need to be out on the roads, stay home, stay safe and enjoy a warm cup of hot chocolate.”
UPDATE #1: BC Hydro has released the following statement about tonight’s outages in the Lower Mainland: “Strong winds and heavy rain have caused significant outage impacts in many areas across the Lower Mainland and the Fraser Valley. Crews are responding and will assess damage as conditions allow. Thank you for your patience as we work to restore power safely.”
Original story below, with updates:
LANGLEY/SURREY – Thousands upon thousands of BC Hydro customers in Langley and Surrey are without power Saturday evening.
According to BC Hydro’s online dashboard, 3,096 customers in Langley/Abbotsford lost power at 6:40 p.m. The cause is due to a downed wire. The affected areas are south of 56 Avenue, east of Fraser Highway, west of Blueridge Drive, and north of 16 Ave.
Another outage in the Langley/Abbotsford area is impacting 1,073 customers. The cause is a downed wire. It’s affecting customers east of 250 Street, west of Peardonville Road, and south of 43 Ave.
Another outage in Langley Township itself is affecting 1,386 customers in an area south of 56 Avenue, east of 224 Street and west of 260 Street. That’s also due to a downed wire.
There’s an outage in northern Langley Township affecting 1,313 customers north of 56 Avenue, south of 98 Avenue, west of Ross Road, and east of Morrison Crescent. The cause is a windstorm.
Two more outages in Langley have left without 2,374 customers and 474 customers, respectively, without power due to a windstorm.
On top of those outages, there’s another one in Langley/Surrey affecting 3,037 customers as of 8:10 p.m. That cause is “under investigation.”
As of 8:13 p.m. Saturday night, there are additional outages in Surrey affecting thousands of customers, including one impacting 3,226 customers, and another one involving 3,288 customers, the latter of which is due to a wind storm. There’s an additional outage affecting another 3,000-plus customers in Surrey itself.
An outage affecting over 3,000 customers in Surrey. (Image Credit: BC Hydro.)
For one of the Surrey outages, BC Hydro says the cause is due to a wire down.
As of 8:33 p.m. Saturday night, there were 366 outages across British Columbia.
As of 9:18 p.m., it’s now up to 427 outages across B.C.
As of 9:07 p.m., there is one outage in Mission due to a windstorm. It’s affecting 215 customers in the Hatzic area south of Dunn Street, north of Lougheed Highway, east of Stave Lake Street and west of Dyke Road.
Hundreds, if not thousands are without power in Maple Ridge similarly due to wind storms.
As of 9:08 p.m., there are no major outages in Chilliwack, Agassiz, Harrison Hot Springs, Hope or the Fraser Canyon, but a rainfall warning and wind warning have been issued for the Fraser Canyon over the next 24 hours.
In a statement sent to Fraser Valley Today, BC Hydro says its crews continue working around-the-clock following Friday night’s storm, restoring power to more than 160,000 customers while responding to new outages as another round of strong winds moves across the province this afternoon and continues into Sunday.
Since the storm began, more than 190,000 customers have experienced an outage. As of 4:30 p.m., about 30,000 customers remained without power. Due to the extent of the damage and access challenges in some areas, some customers are expected to remain without power overnight.
Storm impacts have been felt across British Columbia, with some of the hardest-hit areas including Prince George and surrounding communities, Port Hardy and Courtenay. With additional weather systems expected tonight and through next week, BC Hydro has moved into an extended storm response, with crews restoring remaining outages, responding to new damage and preparing for further impacts.
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