Thousands lose power on Vancouver Island, Southern Gulf Islands during windstorm

VICTORIA -- Thousands of island residents are without power Wednesday as strong winds and heavy rains batter B.C.’s coast.

More than 7,000 BC Hydro customers on Vancouver Island and nearby Gulf Islands are without electricity as of early Wednesday afternoon. Most of the outages are located in the North Island, between Port McNeill and Port Hardy, two of the hardest hit communities.

According to BC Hydro, the outages in the North Island are linked to a transmission circuit failure.

Crews will be heading to an outage affecting 7,000 customers in the #PortHardy, #PortMcNeill and #AlertBay area. They'll share updates here: https://t.co/zptS37eryt pic.twitter.com/HZAKxJgxih

— BC Hydro (@bchydro) December 30, 2020

Meanwhile, more than 300 people are without power on Pender Island. BC Hydro says that the cause of the outage is still under investigation.

The power outages come as wind and rain warnings remain in effect on Vancouver Island.

Winds of up to 90 km/h are expected in the North Island, while winds of up to 80 km/h and heavy rains are forecasted along East Vancouver Island, according to Environment Canada.

The adverse weather caused multiple BC Ferries sailings to be cancelled, largely in routes servicing the Southern Gulf Islands and to Nanaimo from Vancouver.