Wind and rain that caused power outages throughout the Lower Mainland Monday morning hit Chilliwack at about noon.
Within an hour, multiple trees had come down across power lines and roads, including Young Road downtown by the Coast Hotel. A house on South Sumas Road was also hit with a large tree.
Shortly after 1 p.m. emergency crews reported that some drivers were ignoring traffic barriers, and driving over live power lines on Hack Brown Road.
BC Hydro has been kept busy with downed power lines and outages since the storm began across the Lower Mainland and the Sunshine Coast.
"BC Hydro has been carefully planning for this storm and has all available BC Hydro crews and contractor crews responding," they said in a news release at 11:30 a.m. "After a multi-year drought, vegetation has been weakened across the province, making it more susceptible to wind. As a result, many dead and damaged tress and branches have fallen, causing them to come into contact with BC Hydro’s electrical equipment. Crews are busy repairing damaged power lines, poles and other equipment."
They are reminding residents that a downed power is an emergency.
"Call 911 and stay at least 10 metres back. BC Hydro crews will work with first responders to make the area safe," they underlined.
As of noon in Chilliwack, there were more than 1,000 local customers without power.
There was an outage listed as "south of Vedder Mountain" affecting 1,137 customers, and a smaller one up Chilliwack Lake Road near Slesse Park affecting less than 50 customers.
1 p.m. UPDATE: By 1 p.m., more than 1,300 customers were without power in Chilliwack. Trees were down across power lines throughout the city, and at least one home had been reported as being hit by a large tree.
2 p.m. UPDATE: By 2 p.m., there were 15 outages across Chilliwack, affecting 1,691 BC Hydro customers. The Vedder Mountain Road outage was the largest, with a crew on-site. Most of the outages were small, and did not have a crew assigned. First responders were dealing with numerous sites where small fires had started or power lines were crossing roads.
Check back for updates.
