Vancouver Island windstorm: Widespread power outages reported as winds expected to reach 120km/h
Thousands of BC Hydro customers on Vancouver Island and the B.C. Gulf Islands were without power Thursday as a windstorm wreaked havoc across the region.
Approximately 400 residents and businesses between Coal Harbour and Port Hardy, on northern Vancouver Island, lost power due to trees down across hydro lines early Thursday morning.
To the east, more than 1,200 residents of Alert Bay and Sointula lost hydro service just before 9 a.m.
Hundreds more in Port McNeill and Qualicum Beach lost electricity after 10 a.m.
A substation failure cut power to more than 1,000 residents from Port Renfrew to Sooke before 11 a.m., while an outage in the Sooke-Metchosin area left 1,500 customers in the dark shortly after noon.
Environment Canada says southeast winds are expected to reach gusts of 120 km/h on the North Island and Haida Gwaii through to Friday morning.
Exposed coastal areas are especially at risk of damage caused by downed trees and debris.
Eastern and western Vancouver Island are also under wind warnings Thursday as an "intense low-pressure system" moves through the region.
The Greater Victoria area will remain largely protected from the worst of the windstorm, though strong gusts are still expected along coastal areas.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Cuban government apologizes to Montreal-area family after delivering wrong body
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
What is changing about Canada's capital gains tax and how does it impact me?
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
'Anything to win': Trudeau says as Poilievre defends meeting protesters
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accusing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of welcoming 'the support of conspiracy theorists and extremists,' after the Conservative leader was photographed meeting with protesters, which his office has defended.
Fair in Ontario, flurries in Labrador: Weather systems make for an erratic spring
"It's a bit of a complicated pattern; we've got a lot going on," said Jennifer Smith of the Meteorological Service of Canada in an interview with CTVNews.ca on Wednesday. "[As is] typical with weather, all of these things are related."
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
Police tangle with students in Texas and California as wave of campus protest against Gaza war grows
Police tangled with student demonstrators in Texas and California while new encampments sprouted Wednesday at Harvard and other colleges as school leaders sought ways to defuse a growing wave of pro-Palestinian protests.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Northern Ont. lawyer who abandoned clients in child protection cases disbarred
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
'My stomach dropped': Winnipeg man speaks out after being criminally harassed following single online date
A Winnipeg man said a single date gone wrong led to years of criminal harassment, false arrests, stress and depression.