Highways were closed, ferry sailings were cancelled and the lights went out for tens of thousands of residents as strong winds from a storm dubbed a “bomb cyclone” hit Vancouver Island on Tuesday.
due to downed trees and debris on highways Wednesday morning.
The Ministry of Transportation advised motorists remain off highways except for essential travel last night due to several fallen trees and downed power lines.
Road closures this morning include:
Highway 14 is closed between Port Renfrew to nine kilometres east of Jordan River due to a tree across the road and downed power lines.
Highway 4 is closed in both directions due to road debris between Aspeden Road and Chatsworth Road.
Head Bay Road between Gold River Road and Harbour View Road is closed in both directions due to debris on roadway.
Highway 19, the Island Highway, is closed northbound due to a tree on the road at Race Point Road in Campbell River. A detour in effect via Race Point Road.
Highway 28 is closed in both directions between Gold River and Campbell River, also due to a tree on the road. There’s no detour available.
Highway 4 was closed Tuesday east of Port Alberni due to unsafe conditions after emergency responders were called to multiple motor vehicle crashes related to high winds and downed trees, Port Alberni RCMP said.
Earlier, the fire department said it responded to a tree that had fallen on a semi-truck between Port Alberni and the highway summit and another incident at the summit.
Schools in the Greater Victoria School District and Saanich School District are open this morning.
In the Sooke School District there are delayed starts for Hans Helgeson, John Muir and Saseenos.
Belmont School has a regular opening using a generator while 小蓝视频 Hydro crews, on the scene, are working to return power to the school. Whether parents send students to school is at their discretion, according to the district.
"Emergency lighting is in place and bus services will run as usual for registered students," said the district on X.
Expect school buses in Sooke to be delayed on Route 05, 14, and 16.
for Greater Victoria, west and east Vancouver Island on Wednesday morning, along with a special weather statement warning of elevated ocean levels. Winds could gust up to 90 kilometres an hour in Greater Victoria and east Vancouver Island, and up to 110 km/h on the west Island.
Northern Vancouver Island is also under a wind warning, with gusts up to 110 km/h.
Environment Canada says the winds are due to a rapidly deepening low pressure system approximately 500 kilometres west of Vancouver Island. This low is forecast to curl northward toward the Central Coast today, remaining offshore through the period.
The wind was starting to pick up Tuesday afternoon, with a peak of about 94 km/h at Race Rocks, said Brian Proctor, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada.
Those winds were expected to strengthen overnight and continue until Wednesday afternoon, he said.
Snow was falling on Mount Washington and elsewhere at high elevations and the Malahat could see a mix of rain and snow, Proctor said.
The storm is unusual because it will likely last longer than most storms that pass through in the fall, making significant power outages more likely, Proctor said. “We’re probably lucky that it’s tracking as far offshore as it is. If it was closer to the Island, we’d see those big winds over a much larger portion of area, so we’d probably have much more significant damage.”
小蓝视频 Hydro brought crews over from the mainland to respond to outages in anticipation of cancelled ferries because the Island is expected to be the hardest hit part of the province, said Ted Olynyk, community relations manager for Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast.
At 11:30 p.m. for nearly 130,000 customers on Vancouver Island in about 290 locations. About 39,000 customers were without power on the Lower Mainland and Sunshine Coast.
As of 7 a.m. Wednesday, about 90,000 on the Island were still without power, along with about 6,000 on the Lower Mainland.
Many of the outages were caused by downed trees or broken power poles.
In a statement Tuesday evening, 小蓝视频 Hydro said a strong windstorm and heavy rain were causing extensive outages. "We have all available crews to ensure a strong response this evening, and crews will work throughout the night to restore as many customers as possible. Ongoing wind has made it difficult to begin restoration work in some areas safely. Customers should prepare to be without power overnight."
Olynyk said it’s fortunate that many weaker branches have already fallen in previous storms, so the impact of this week’s storm may be mitigated.
People should stay 10 metres back from any downed wire and call 911, as it could be live, Olynyk said.
The storm is a reminder to have an emergency kit prepared that can get you through 72 hours without power, he said.
On the North Island, crews were plowing snow Tuesday at high elevations of Highway 19 and Highway 28, said Chris Cowley, general manager of Mainroad North Island, which maintains the roads north of Parksville.
“Other than that, the lower elevations, it’s sort of a bit of the calm before the storm,” Cowley said.
Additional crews were bracing Tuesday night for the coming winds, he said.
While the forecasted winds aren’t extreme on their own, the wind warning covers the company’s entire service area — the top two-thirds of the Island — for a long period, which is uncommon, Cowley said. “That’s the difficult one about this. There’s potential to be stretched a little bit thin.”
Crews will likely be kept busy removing downed trees and they could have to close roads if it becomes unsafe for them to work in the high winds, Cowley said.
North Island residents should be prepared to hunker down, he said. “If they don’t have to travel tomorrow morning, I would say stay home if you can.”
Cowley recommends checking drivebc.ca before hitting the road.
The winds led to cancelled ferries in the evening between the Island and mainland. Travel may also be affected Wednesday, 小蓝视频 Ferries said. For updates on sailings and cancellations, 小蓝视频 Ferries recommends checking its .
- With a file from Cindy E. Harnett
