Thousands of Coquitlam residents are without power Friday afternoon after powerful winds ripped through the Lower Mainland, knocking out electricity in neighbourhoods in the Austin Heights and Mallairdville area.
Two major outages hit Coquitlam between 11 a.m. and noon. Power has been restored after one outage that affected about 2,100 customers and centred on Brunette Avenue, stretching from Lougheed Highway to Schoolhouse Street.
The other outage continues to keep about 2,500 people in the dark in an area stretching from Marmont Street in the east to North Road in the west, and bounded by Austin Avenue in the north and Lougheed down to Alderson Avenue in the south.
By 12:45 p.m., crews were reported to have arrived and. by 2 p.m., a spokesperson with B.C. Hydro said they were still working to restore power
At the peak today, nearly 80,000 customers were without power across the province after high winds along the coast and snow storms in the Interior knocked wreaked havoc on the electrical grid. The Thompson-Okanagan and Shuswap regions were particularly hard hit, with most of the town of Salmon Arm losing power. In the Lower Mainland, about 16,000 customers had their electricity knocked out, including, 2,700 in Surrey, 1,900 in Richmond and Delta, and 1,200 in Langley.
Earlier this morning, Environment Canada issued a wind warning to the Tri-Cities, saying gusts could reach 90 km/h near the water.
The good news? The same wind wreaking havoc on people’s Halloween displays had cleared away thick rain clouds in many parts of the Tri-Cities by 11 a.m. Friday. The strong winds are expected to be followed by “an unusual stretch of pleasant, dry fall days,” according to The Weather Network.
Environment Canada predicts clear and sunny weather all the way through to Oct. 31, with the temperature hovering between a high of 10 and a low of 1.
