Nearly 30,000 lose power on Vancouver Island amid rare spring snow - up to 8 inches deep

Simon Little
Global News
Sun, 10 Apr 2022 11:14 UTC

© Ian Hamilton

BC Hydro said nearly 30,000 customers on Vancouver Island lost power Sunday morning in an area just north of Nanaimo.

Most of the outages affected Qualicum Beach and Parksville, a region that saw rare spring snow Sunday.

BC Hydro cited several causes for the outages, including failed transmission circuits, downed wires and the snowstorm itself.

"The outage on #VancouverIsland was caused by heavy, wet snow bringing down several trees," the Crown corporation.

"Crews are working to complete repairs but customers may still experience an outage once the line is restored due to smaller, localized damage."

By 5 p.m., BC Hydro said it had reduced the number of outages to about 1,000.

Power outages on Vancouver Island

The outage on #VancouverIsland was caused by heavy, wet snow bringing down several trees. Crews are working to complete repairs but customers may still experience an outage once the line is restored due to smaller, localized damage. Updates here: https://t.co/YiO45vLUiL pic.twitter.com/uuljl5C87G

— BC Hydro (@bchydro) April 10, 2022