VANCOUVER — BC Hydro crews are working as fast as possible to restore power across southern Vancouver Island, Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley, and the southern Interior following a powerful wind storm on Tuesday.
The Hydro website shows nearly 29,000 customers remained without power on the Lower Mainland and Sunshine Coast Wednesday after winds gusting nearly 70 kilometres per hour toppled trees and snapped power lines.
Just over 2,000 customers were still in the dark on southern Vancouver Island, while Hydro says New Denver is the hardest hit in the Okanagan and Kootenay regions.
About 1,700 homes and businesses are affected across those regions.
Crews from the Interior have been moved to the Lower Mainland to bolster roughly 50 teams repairing all the damage but officials caution some properties might not have power back until late Wednesday.
At its peak, electricity was cut to about 110,000 B.C. customers, and several elementary and secondary schools in North Vancouver and Maple Ridge cancelled classes Wednesday because of continuing outages.
