Updated from BC Hydro, Jan. 17 at 3:53 p.m.
An update from BC Hydro shows most of the affected area has been restored, but they say most of the outages are still centred around the Gulf Islands.
Earlier BC Hydro predicted just over 20,000 people had to deal with power outages due to the winter storm that hit Vancouver Island last night.
Manager for community relations on Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast Ted Olynyk says BC Hydro is trying to expedite repairs to the hardest hit areas, but they are still unable to determine just how long people will be without power.
“Crews are working 24 hours to get power restored as quickly as possible,” he says. “Experience tells us with weather like this we are going to see significant damage, and we are certainly not out of the woods yet.
“There is another system tomorrow, and it could bring heavy wet snow which could break branches and more trees.”
He says the biggest problem in the hardest hit areas will be accessibility because of the amount of damage.
Olynyk insists people use caution, especially in the Gulf Island area.
