Island braces for first big fall storm

A mid-autumn blast was expected to arrive with a bang on Vancouver Island early today, but forecasters said Greater Victoria would likely be spared the first major fall storm’s bitter wrath.

Environment Canada spokesman Trevor Smith said the west, east and north coasts of the Island would bear the brunt of heavy winds.

“It’s a pretty powerful storm, and it packs both wind and rain for the coast, but Victoria will probably be sheltered from the rain,” he said.

It will be blustery, especially this morning and afternoon. Wind gusts up to 70 kilometres an hour are forecast for Haro Strait and Juan de Fuca Strait.

Winds could be up to 90 km/h on the west and east coasts of the Island.

The strongest winds were to occur after midnight on the north and central coasts. On the south coast including Vancouver, Victoria and Nanaimo, the strongest winds will occur this morning. “It’s fairly slow moving,” but should pass by late afternoon today, Smith said.

In terms of the storm’s impact, Smith said there are likely to be some power outages on the west coast of the Island.

He characterized this event as a “traditional fall storm” that may be big in scale but not as sustained and localized as the massive storm that hit the Lower Mainland at the end of August and knocked out power to more than 700,000 people.

To prepare for this storm, B.C. Hydro has redeployed contract crews to Ucluelet and Port Hardy from their bases in Duncan and other parts of the Island.

“We know there will be heavy rains and winds on the north part of the Island,” said B.C. Hydro spokesman Ted OIynyk. The corporation will have power line technicians, designers, communications crews and others on call.

“We prepare year-round for major events. We harden the system up,” he said. That means ongoing trimming of trees branches away from power lines, and line upgrades. “We know we will never eliminate outages completely, but we try to lessen the impact on our customers.”

Telus is also in storm mode. “It’s all hands on deck,” said spokeswoman Liz Sauve.

The company has mobilized a team to track the storm, increased its network and technical teams’ capacity, put extra resources on call, and has generators and extra fuel ready to go to sustain wireless sites if power is lost. “We know that the services we provide are of paramount importance to our customers at all times, particularly during a storm,” Sauve said.