Snowstorm snarls traffic, cancels ferries, cuts power to thousands on Vancouver Island

Most of Vancouver Island remained under winter storm warnings Tuesday as heavy snow cancelled buses, closed schools and cut power to thousands.

Parts of southern Vancouver Island saw more than 30 centimetres of accumulation overnight and more snow was expected to pile up before tapering off Tuesday afternoon.

Environment Canada said an additional five to 10 centimetres was still to come for areas between Victoria and Qualicum Beach before Wednesday morning.

Officials with the Ministry of Transportation urged residents against non-essential travel. For those who must drive, the Insurance Corporation of B.C. recommended packing emergency kits including jumper cables, warm clothes and shovels.

Social media posts showed vehicles spinning out or stuck on the sides of roads, and some cyclists venturing out on two wheels.

More than 6,200 BC Hydro customers were in the dark early Tuesday as downed power lines were affecting service in Victoria, Sooke and Metchosin, as well as on the southern Gulf Islands.

The University of Victoria was closed for the day and in-person exams were cancelled. Online exams were expected to proceed as scheduled.

Vancouver Island University, Camosun College and Royal Roads University also closed their doors to staff and students.

The snowstorm shut down public services in Greater Victoria and severely restricted flights at Victoria International Airport.

Bus service in the capital was suspended early Tuesday and had yet to resume in the afternoon, but officials were making plans to begin a gradual return to service on some major routes, said BC Transit spokesperson Tessa Humphries.

“All service is currently suspended in the Victoria Regional Transit system,” she said in an interview. “We are closely monitoring the conditions and our team is working very hard to resume service.”

Roads must be plowed for the routes to be used safely, she said.

At Victoria International Airport, some flights were landing and departing but there were numerous cancellations and delays earlier in the day, said airport spokesperson Rod Hunchak.

"We've had over two dozen cancellations and around 18 delays," he said, adding the airport typically handles about 70 flights daily.

"That will probably change as the day progresses. We've seen flights that were delayed turned into cancellations, so it's changing all the time."

Hunchak said airport crews worked overnight to keep the runways, roads and other airport areas clear, but the weather was challenging.

"Things are as good as can be expected considering the amount of snowfall that occurred," said Hunchak. "Certainly, we didn't have the same operational impact that Vancouver is experiencing. Our crews have been working since yesterday and we do have flights that are taking off and landing and departing."

Humphries said public transit service in the Duncan and Cowichan Valley areas on Vancouver Island were suspended due to the poor road conditions, while transit in Nanaimo and the Comox Valley was operating, but riders should expect delays.

The snowfall forced Vancouver International Airport to temporarily suspend incoming flights and hold many departing planes at their gates.

BC Ferries also cancelled all morning sailings between the Lower Mainland, Vancouver Island, the Sunshine Coast and southern Gulf Islands because of poor visibility and staff difficulty reaching ferry terminals.

First responders and road maintenance contractors across Vancouver Island asked drivers to stay off the roads Tuesday unless travel was necessary.

The heavy snowfall on the island also stranded B.C. Premier David Eby at home.

He said his eight-year-old son's holiday day camp was cancelled for the day and his three-year-old daughter's child care was closed due to the snowfall.

"We're all together here at home," said Eby. "Both parents working remotely as in a flashback to pandemic days and whenever we get a window we're going to fire those kids out into the snow, and in the meantime Netflix is our friend."

BC Hydro said in a statement that heating demands caused by the cold weather had resulted in a new record for peak hourly electricity demand on Monday night.

Consumption between 5 p.m. and 6.p.m. surpassed 10,800 megawatts, breaking the previous record set on Dec. 27, 2021.

The electricity supplier's website showed more than 30 outages across the province, most of them clustered on the Lower Mainland and southern Vancouver Island.

With files from The Canadian Press