NEWS BULLETIN photo

NEWS BULLETIN photo

UPDATE: Hydro crews re-stringing power lines, making progress

About 40,000 Vancouver Island and Gulf Islands customers still without electricity

  • Dec. 23, 2018 12:00 a.m.

B.C. Hydro is reporting “good progress,” though some Vancouver Island and Gulf Islands customers are still without electricity after Thursday’s wind storm.

According to a press release from B.C. Hydro on Sunday morning, about 40,000 customers in the region are still without power, though more than 550,000 customers on the south coast of B.C. have had their power restored.

“Restoring remaining customers continues to be a challenge due to the extent of the damage,” notes the press release. “Hundreds of individual outages remain that crews have to attend to individually to make repairs, which includes re-stringing hundreds of spans of power lines, and replacing power poles and transformers.”

B.C Hydro. noted that it “appreciates its customers’ continued patience as it works to work through repairs.”

Customers can view maps and lists of outages, with information on where work crews have been assigned, at http://bchydro.com/outages.

Meanwhile, the City of Nanaimo advised Saturday evening that the water treatment plant has returned at full capacity and “residents and businesses may go back to using water as normal.”

City pools have reopened.

“We are overwhelmed by the community’s efforts and messages of support for our staff. Thank you for your patience, cooperation and understanding,” said Bill Sims, the city’s director of engineering and public works, in a press release.

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