Summer to Fall overnight..
 

We have been having a nice little storm come through today, feels like October now instead of August. The rain is good, but the ground is super dry and the wind has been causing some issues with trees and power lines.

200,000 without power.... Our power has been flickering on and off all day with 30-60 second outages.

the river has a decent level again as well, it was getting so dry and low the salmon couldn't even stay completely covered in parts.

Strong winds across Lower Mainland cut power to 200,000 homes - British Columbia - CBC News

Re: Summer to Fall overnight..
 

BC weather sounds awful, you should have stayed in Ontario. Cept you wouldn't have met your wife, but apart from that.

Re: Summer to Fall overnight..
 

It's not normally this strange weather wise. I did like Onatario for the most part, granted I only spent end of summer/fall and part of winter there, but it was nice place, at least where I was. I especially liked the fact there is Via Rail multiple day train service that made getting between city's/towns along the line easier.

But yes, I would not have met my wife, so maybe I was meant to come back to BC to meet her.

Re: Summer to Fall overnight..
 

I am no fan of translink, but seems with bad weather, and the fact a tree fell and hit a train or the train hit the tree and caused a shut down and delays people would be more understanding.

Re: Summer to Fall overnight..
 

BC Hydro say's this is the worst storm they have had since 2006. Also the worst day for their website to be down, it was offline most of the day and appears to still be.

BC Hydro spokesperson apologizes for website being down today | Globalnews.ca



They hope to have power restored by 12 noon Sunday and have brought crews in as far away as Prince George to assist.

Re: Summer to Fall overnight..
 

Well that was fun.

Yesterday it took me two and a half hours to get back from New Westminster to Maple Ridge in the height of the storm. Dodged trees in New Westminster (where it was crazy) and on Maryhill Bypass, where the traffic was stationary and being hit by falling trees, with no escape (due to central median barrier)

Electricity was of course off when I got home and it just came back on in the last hour.

It strikes me that it is about time that BCHydro started replacing the overhead local power network with buried cables and get in to the 20th century, let alone the 21st century.

Britain has winds of this speed and higher gusts pretty much weekly, yet as most of you know, there are hardly any power outages of any significance. Wind speed of 80-90 MILES per hour cause outages - that's 50% stronger than those felt in BC yesterday. In Britain, power cables have been getting buried since the 1880s.

In the UK, the local (415v and 240V) distribution is almost ALL buried and probably 90% of the 11KV network is too. Only the EHV (big pylon stuff) is above ground and far out of harms way in terms of trees.

Yet in BC there is no investment in under grounding cables - the only places that this is done is in new subdivisions, where EVERYTHING is underground and that is of course paid for by the Developer, costing BCHydro ZERO.

Re: Summer to Fall overnight..
 

I've been wondering for a decade why electric etc is not buried. They were buried in my old neighborhood in California back in like 1995...lol... The city mandated they be done, but suppose here with BC Hydro being provincial crown corp a city can't force them to do it?

One thing I have found annoying in Squamish is there is a known issue with the line that feeds my area and tree's that causes outages number of times a year, and yet they don't just flipping cut the tree down or back from the lines.

I've had more power outages in the last 18 months then I have experienced in the 10 years in Canada and its always in the same spot and involves the same tree.

We didn't see the strength the lower mainland saw, but the highway south of here in Horse Shoe bay was closed for a time when a tree fell across the highway.

Our power did flicker out for about 30 seconds, but that was the worst of it.

Re: Summer to Fall overnight..
 

We happened to be on Vancouver Island yesterday when the wind hit, it didnt even seem that bad and the power went out for hours, didn't really affect us as we were driving around looking at pretty bits, so other than traffic lights out and bits of tree flying around we were ok. We were really surprised that the power went downs so easily, but then Alberta cuts vegetation down around the power lines to help prevent this and it's pretty evident that BC doesn't.

Re: Summer to Fall overnight..
 

Yip...storm yesterday...great day to be on a ferry to Washington to go and have a few days away before activating our PR! Heave-ho...many liquor bottles from the duty free smashed as they fell off the shelves! All summer it was beautiful too! Not too fond of journeys like that!:(

Re: Summer to Fall overnight..
 

The next person who says "we need the rain" I'm going to kick them in the naffing goolies. :frown:

Re: Summer to Fall overnight..
 

Just got my power back on!!

Re: Summer to Fall overnight..
 

I expect the rain is needed though.

Re: Summer to Fall overnight..
 

It was, it was a very dry summer.

Re: Summer to Fall overnight..
 

We need the rain ...... bring it on!

Re: Summer to Fall overnight..
 

Personally, I couldn't give a naff if the whole province burnt down, this rain has ruined my fishing. :thumbdown: