ABBOTSFORD, B.C. — Tens of thousands of people in the Fraser Valley are still without electricity on Saturday as icy roads and poor visibility made it hard for crews to restore power.
BC Hydro says Mission and Abbotsford were the hardest hit communities after two ice storms slammed the region on Thursday and Friday, bringing down tree branches and power lines.
More than 100,000 people were initially affected by the outages — 36,000 of whom had not had power restored by 8 a.m. on Saturday.
BC Hydro says crews — including some who were brought in from other regions — are working to restore power, but "difficult and dangerous conditions" such as icy roads, poor visibility and falling trees have made the effort more challenging.
Officials are reminding people to keep their distance and call 911 should they see a downed power line.
Meteorologists also issued weather advisories elsewhere in the province. Snowfall warnings apply to the following regions, listed alphabetically:
100 Mile
Arrow Lakes-Slocan Lake
Boundary
Fraser Canyon
Howe Sound
Kootenay Lake
Metro Vancouver – West Vancouver to Whistler
Nicola
North and South Thompson
Okanagan Valley
Shuswap
Similkameen
West Kootenay
Whistler
The following areas are under extreme cold weather warnings:
Dease Lake
Elk Valley
Peace River
South Klondike Highway
Watson Lake
