UPDATE: As of Thursday morning, Nov. 5, only one small localized outage in Shawnigan Lake remained.
UPDATE: A large outage is now affecting almost 1,800 customers through the Somenos and Quamichan Lake areas, from Herd Road, to Lakes Road and Maple Bay Road.
Outages are also affecting the Bamberton area and an area of Shawnigan Lake-Mill Bay Road.
Wind kicked up in the Cowichan Valley on Wednesday night, and by 8 p.m. thousands of people had lost power.
B.C. Hydro’s website showed power outages from Youbou to Chemainus to Shawnigan Lake.
The biggest outage by 8 p.m. was one affecting 2,105 customers stretching from Ladysmith down the coast to Chemainus.
Another outage took out power to almost 400 customers from Caycuse to Honeymoon Bay on the shores of Cowichan Lake.
Smaller outages are also affecting residents on Herd Road near Crofton, and two separate areas north and south of Shawnigan Lake.
While only the Cowichan Lake area outage listed trees down on wires as the cause, as rain tapered off Wednesday evening, significant wind gusts kicked up, providing a likely explantion for the outages.
The Cowichan Valley, Salt Spring Island, and areas around Sidney appear to be the hardest hit.
