When Disaster Strikes

[RspctFrmCalgary]

The snow didn't make it this far, but it was snowing this afternoon around Goldstream and up the Malahat. We were checking out the Malahat webcam at work and it was pretty gross for awhile.

Still fairly "calm" here too. Windy since this morning, but nothing serious ... probably topped out at 35 km/hr. Sure those 100km/hr winds will just be a ton of fun when it finally starts tonight. Supposed to ease up through the morning tomorrow.

STAY SAFE out there firedog.

[RspctFrmCalgary]

at the water!

[MalahatTwo7]

at the water!

I just soooo love cryptic messages like that! heehehehehehehehee
-------

MAN 'O MAN.

Power won't return to some areas for days. Rob Shaw, Times Colonist

Published: Thursday, December 14, 2006

Frustrated B.C. Hydro repair crews struggled to repair power to more than 22,000 people in the dark on Vancouver Island today, but admitted many areas will not be back online for days and tonight's storm will only compound damage.

It is "an inexact science" to anticipate how many trees will topple onto lines later today, said B.C. Hydro spokesperson Steve Watson.

Winds are forecasted to increase up to 90 kilometres per hour this evening as the B.C. coast is blasted by the third major storm in the past two weeks.

B.C. Hydro has called in reinforcements from Alberta and the Yukon, said Watson. About 80 power line technician crews and 33 tree trimming crews are deployed on Vancouver Island today, he said.

That's double normal levels, and they'll be sticking around for the foreseeable future, said Watson.

Twenty-six of the 80 power line crews are in Port Alberni, where the city and outlying areas are dealing with hundreds of downed lines.

Meanwhile, residents in the remote western fishing village of Bamfield ‹ one of the hardest hit areas on the Island ‹ steeled themselves for another onslaught and the realization power won't be coming back any time soon.

"The amount of work required to get Bamfield up will be a monumental effort and will take days," said Watson. "We are likely looking at a Tuesday restoration time." That timeline assumes damage is not compounded today. Repair crews have still not tackled the 172 spans of Hydro wire down between Bamfield and Port Alberni.

Local school children gathered at the Bamfield Marine Station yesterday, because it was one of the community's only large, heated, meeting places, receptionist Shirley Pakula said by telephone.

But the research facility's large generator died Wednesday, sending everyone into a "big panic" to protect the marine life until a network of smaller generators could come online, she said.

Some houses in the community of 400 people have also been crushed, said Pakula. "There was one girl that had her house hit. A big tree came down and just demolished the house." A central spot to gather for supplies in Bamfield remained the General Store, which continued to run on generator power yesterday.

"People are pretty jovial, they are all smiling and I still see a lot of eggnog and wine on the counter," said Rose Janelle, a store employee.

Nonetheless, it has been "hurricane" weather in Bamfield, she said. One house was reduced to "matchsticks" by a tree, and earlier in the week Janelle said she heard 11 trees "exploding" in half an hour while sitting at a friend's house.

"In 24 years I've been here, I haven't seen it quite this bad." Other particularly battered areas included Hornby and Denman islands were power has been off since Monday.

Hornby's private wharf has simply "disintegrated" , the windows of its pub are blown out, and a number of houses have been hit, said Sheila Macpherson, a manager at the Island's Co-Op grocery and fuel store.

"We have lots of supplies for everybody and we're able to run the stores for four hours a day on our generator," she said. "People are not going short, which is amazing. We didn't actually run out of candles yet, which is surprising.

"As long as we don't run out of fuel we can power our generators. I don't think it's an issue yet. But there was a very long lineup of cars trying to get fuel yesterday afternoon."

© Times Colonist 2006

[RspctFrmCalgary]

What do you expect, I was a bit groggy from being up in the middle of the night. Well ... not really middle - I woke up at 3:30am and went back to sleep for an hour around 4:45am. I was talking about the view out my window of the harbour. The waves/spray are coming up right over the walkway a la Dallas Road. Hard to tell for sure in the dark, but it looked like some of the spray was as high or higher than the "pagoda". Know where I'm talking about? Can you say "seething seas"? Usually the breakwater gets the brunt of it and we're a bit more sheltered here (in the bay next to the West Bay Marina). Not today.

50,000 now without power. 1/6th of Victoria. Sooke is pretty much shut down. Roads all closed, no power, all schools closed for a "Storm Day". Victoria School District open. Metchosin all the roads are closed except Metchosin Rd. Malahat is open alternating single lane travel. It was sort of closed at Shawnigan Lake turnoff, but then they said ok you can go, but it's at your own risk. *revised* just heard as I was posting this Saanich School District is completely closed, leaving only Vic open.

When it gets light out the Hydro crews will be back out in force but it is too dangerous for them to be out there in the dark.

2 deaths in Washington.

Hope everyone responding/working today stays safe!

B.C. storm to reach near-hurricane-force winds
Updated Fri. Dec. 15 2006 7:34 AM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

A major storm has hit the West Coast, and is expected to bring near-hurricane-force winds that could pass 100 km/h on Friday.

The storm will strike the hardest on B.C.'s Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island.

In Greater Vancouver, the winds are expected to range between 70 to 100 km/h while they could possibly reach more than 100 km/h on Vancouver Island, confirms Environment Canada.

On Thursday, BC Hydro warned tens of thousands of residents -- mostly on Vancouver Island, the Sunshine Coast and the Gulf Islands -- to leave home until the electricity is restored.

Many of the 25,000 homes have been without power for several days and the utility says some may not be restored until Sunday -- but only if Friday's storm does little damage.

In Victoria, workers spent Thursday preparing for the storm by removing a third of the city's streetlight Christmas decorations.

"The ornaments were shaking so much during the last storm they smashed many of the globes from the lights," reported CTV Vancouver's Jim Beatty.

Workers also set up sand bags in case the heavy rain and winds led to flooding.

"We're just getting ready for the storm tonight," said crew member Cain Sparkes. "We hear there's some big wind coming up so we're preparing for the worst."

The wind is expected to be so bad that residents could find themselves struggling just to keep on their feet.

"At 70 kilometres per hour, the force on an adult is large enough that they actually have to lean into the wind, because the wind-force is so great," said Sheldon Green, a professor at the University of British Columbia's department of mechanical engineering.

Meanwhile, construction crews have worked hard to prepare sites for possible wind damage.

"A lot of our time, a third of our work yesterday, was spent battening things down and making sure things don't blow off the buildings," said one worker.

The city has also warned residents to secure any objects in their yards that might be carried off by the wind.

In Port Alberni, the high winds will deal a further blow to residents already hit hard by a storm earlier this week -- especially the estimated 3,000 people still without power.

"I was born here and I've never seen anything like this before," said one man.

Many residents are still recovering from flood damage, while several have yet to return to their homes.

"We've got a lot of people who are still not back in the houses where we had the flooding," said Mayor Ken McRae. "We had a couple hundred residences and commercial spaces that were flooded."

He added: "It's a tough situation. No doubt about it."

With reports from CTV Vancouver's Jim Beatty and David Kincaid

[RspctFrmCalgary]

Thank God THAT'S over with ...

How we got blasted: Record-ripping winds took rare path

Angela Herrling's 1986 Chevy pickup truck and another car, also belonging to Herrling, broke the fall of a large tree that was blown down in the storm yesterday in hard-hit Sooke.
Photograph by : Ray Smith, Times Colonist

Judith Lavoie, Times Colonist
Published: Saturday, December 16, 2006
Wind gusts at Race Rocks, off the Island's southwest tip, reached a record 158 kilometres an hour as the third intense wind storm in a week plowed a trail of destruction through southern Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland.

Yesterday morning's storm knocked out power to thousands of residents, toppled trees, and damaged buildings and cars.

More residents were forced from their homes because they didn't have power, and ended up moving into hotels or into the homes of friends and relatives.

Around the capital region, areas that suffered the most damage had winds that gusted to between 70 and 90 km/h.

In the last three storms, including yesterday's, the wind has gathered over the North Pacific, whooshed across the ocean, gathered speed in the funnel of Juan de Fuca Strait and then whacked Vancouver Island with its full force, said Chris Emond, Environment Canada meteorologist.

"There are tremendous wind speeds and three in one week is unusual." The wind is coming straight across the cold North Pacific and hitting land, rather than taking the more common route of dipping south and picking up tropical moisture, Emond said.

Anne McCarthy, weather services specialist with Environment Canada, said the storms are cutting a swath straight across Vancouver Island instead of the more usual pattern of tracking to the north coast around Prince Rupert and the Queen Charlottes.

"What has been interesting about this week are three in a row -- the bang, bang, bang syndrome -- and two of those windstorms have involved taking the centre of the storm across Vancouver Island itself," she said.

Forecasters have not yet had time to closely review statistics -- although figures kept since 1995 at Race Rocks do not show anything as strong as the 126 km/h winds and 158 km/h gusts of yesterday.

No records were set at Victoria International Airport where, this week, gusts have been between 78 and 99 km/h. In 1967 and 1972, gusts of 109 km/h were recorded.

With the weather gods hitting Vancouver Island with floods, snow and gales, even weather forecasters are starting to get tired, McCarthy said.

"And they love bad weather." University of Victoria climatologist Andrew Weaver said conclusions cannot be drawn from the unusual weather.

"Everyone wants to pin every weather event on global warming or El Nino and you can't do that," he said.

Climate is broader than singular weather events,Weaver said.

"But, the fact we got three blasts in a row is pretty annoying and unusual." The forecast gives opportunities for more misery. Snow flurries and rain showers are expected for today. By this evening it should be cloudy with a low of zero and a 60 per cent chance of showers.

© Times Colonist (Victoria) 2006

[RspctFrmCalgary]

Thousands still without power as B.C. recovers from latest storm

A fallen willlow lies over a pedestrian bridge in Stanley Park in Vancouver, B.C. on Friday December 15, 2006. Some people on B.C.'s south coast may not have power for days after the latest storm to hammer the region.

Photograph by : Canadian Press

Bill Cleverley, CanWest News Service; Victoria Times Colonist; with files from Vancouver Province
Published: Sunday, December 17, 2006
VICTORIA - B.C. residents were picking up the pieces Saturday, many praying for power and surveying the damage in the wake of a windstorm that hit the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island early Friday.

The third intense storm in a week plowed a trail of destruction, toppling trees, damaging buildings and cars, and knocking out power to an estimated 250,000 homes. Wind gusts of 158 kilometres an hour were recorded at Race Rocks, off Vancouver Island's southwest tip.

BC Hydro officials were hoping to reduce the number without power on Vancouver Island to about 11,000 by the end of Saturday, but said some people, especially in the hard-hit West Shore communities and Sooke, could be without electricity for days.

Greater Victoria hotels were reporting brisk business as several people had opted for the sure-fire warm bed rather than waiting for hydro crews.

In Vancouver, officials said the city has never seen anything like it.

''This is probably the worst we have seen, in terms of widespread damage to traffic signals in particular,'' city engineer Tom Timm said Friday after assessing the mess.

''We haven't seen that kind of severe damage in the city before.''

Vancouver crews worked through the weekend to fix signals at 150 intersections that had been knocked out by power outages and broken light-fixtures.

Crews were also cleaning up fallen trees and downed wires.

No power was the least of the worries for some, including five families in Sooke who were lucky to be alive after more than a dozen large trees came toppling down at the height of the windstorm totally destroying both sides of one duplex and severely damaging three neighbours' homes.

Cars and a trailer were crushed, and trees crashed through roofs, decks and fences, but miraculously no one was hurt.

''It was terrifying,'' Kate Andrzejewski said as she recalled climbing a fence and running into the street in the pitch dark as one tree after another started crashing down all around, and ultimately into her house.

Power to the commercial core of Sooke was restored at around 8 p.m. Friday. The municipality, which had been operating an emergency shelter at the town hall, found temporary homes for displaced residents at several local bed and breakfast operations.

Sooke Mayor Janet Evans said hydro estimated it could be several days seven or more until power is restored to the outlying areas.

''We recommend if your power is not going to be restored in a day ... you may want to consider looking at other arrangements,'' BC Hydro spokesman Ted Olynyk said.

Susan Mundick, Vancouver Park Board's general manager, said Stanley Park would remain closed for the weekend.

Trees have blocked the sea wall, with the added hazard of live Hydro wires among the fallen branches.

''Our staff are saying that this is certainly the worst they've seen in Stanley Park,'' said Mundick. She said a half-dozen crews of four to six workers each were working full-bore trying to clean up the city's famed park.

High winds knocked down trees across the Lower Mainland and power outages played havoc with public transit Friday morning. One of the two SeaBus berths at the North Vancouver terminal was damaged when a group of barges broke free of their moorings and rammed it.

Lions Gate Bridge was closed Friday morning, but by that afternoon road crews had cleared the approximately 100 fallen trees blocking the causeway through Stanley Park and the bridge was reopened to northbound and southbound traffic.

Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan asked citizens and Christmas shoppers to be patient and civil to each other.

''This is probably the busiest shopping weekend of the year,'' he said. ''I would urge people to be very cautious and patient when they drive.''

Victoria Times Colonist


© CanWest News Service 2006

[RspctFrmCalgary]

B.C.'s Stanley Park loses 1,000 trees after storm
19/12/2006 11:21:10 PM
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Vancouver's famous Stanley Park has lost more than 1,000 trees, after a series of storms battered the West Coast with near-hurricane force winds.

CTV.ca News Staff
Fallen trees litter the side of the road in Stanley Park blocking the entrance to one of many the many trails in the park, Tuesday December 17, 2006. (CP / Chuck Stoody)

Fallen trees litter the side of the road in Stanley Park blocking the entrance to one of many the many trails in the park, Tuesday December 17, 2006. (CP / Chuck Stoody)

The devastation is so immense that the park's manager went up in CTV Vancouver's "Chopper Nine" helicopter to get a better sense of the damage.

"I can tell you that all the staff are pretty shook up about this whole thing," said maintenance supervisor Eric Meagher.

The clean-up is expected to take months, as crews cut down damaged trees, haul away fallen branches and clear roads.

While the east side of the park is now open to the public, the west side could remain closed for another week. Workers have yet to clear out any of the area's trails, which remain highly dangerous.

"Some trees were uprooted, some were broken, and some were hit by other trees. So it's a combination of problems," said Meagher.

Vancouver's Board of Parks and Recreation may consider using commercial logging trucks to help remove the trees and speed up the process.

One fallen hemlock tree was estimated to be more than 200 years old. Replanting could take years, and the park board is accepting donations from the public to help the renewal process.

"Hundreds and hundreds of trees were either uprooted or simply snapped off, by winds that were estimated to be at least 100 kilometres per hour, and sometimes gusting well beyond that," reported CTV Vancouver's David Kincaid, who surveyed the damage in Chopper Nine.

Stanley Park measures about 400 hectares and first opened to the public on Oct. 29, 1889. Perhaps its most unique feature is the 8.8-kilometre long Seawall, but the barrier was also damaged by the wind.

"The Seawall has been physically damaged, not just by trees lying on it, but large portions of the pavement scoured away by the waves," said Kincaid.

The brutal wind storm also created havoc on the city's annual Bright Nights in Stanley Park display. The event is organized by firefighters to raise money for burn victims.

Firefighters helped to restore the display through the weekend so it could open Monday.

The West Coast was hit by three major storms in total. David Phillips, a senior climatologist with Environment Canada, described them as "jumbo jets on the airport tarmac. You had one coming in right after another."

At one point, about 240,000 BC Hydro customers were without electricity.

Two elderly people in Burnaby, B.C. were discovered dead Sunday, the apparent victims of carbon monoxide poisoning that could be related to the power outage.

The RCMP found a generator along with the bodies of a 66-year-old male and 65-year-old woman.

The couple were living in one of the last areas of the Lower Mainland left without power in the wake of an extreme windstorm that hit Thursday night.

With reports from CTV Vancouver

[RspctFrmCalgary]

2 dead in B.C. in aftermath of windstorm
18/12/2006 12:02:25 PM
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A British Columbia couple died in their home over the weekend of what's suspected to be carbon monoxide poisoning after using a gas-powered generator for electricity.

CBC News
An aerial view of Vancouver's Stanley Park, which has been closed to the public, shows the damage to trees. Scores of them snapped in Friday's windstorm.

An aerial view of Vancouver's Stanley Park, which has been closed to the public, shows the damage to trees. Scores of them snapped in Friday's windstorm.
(CBC)

Police were called to a suburban Burnaby house on Saturday and found the bodies of a 66-year-old man and 65-year-old woman. A generator had been running inside the house with all the windows and doors closed.

They were among those without electricity after Friday's windstorm brought down power lines across the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island.

B.C. Hydro estimates about 10,000 customers are still without power from that storm, mostly on Vancouver's North Shore and in the Victoria area. At the height of the storm, 250,000 were without electricity.

Another 6,500 customers are without power Monday morning on northern Vancouver Island because of a transmission problem. The affected communities include Port Hardy, Port Alice and Port McNeill.

All schools in the region have been closed for the day.

Hydro urges patience

More than 800 B.C. Hydro employees have been working for 12 to 16 hours a day throughout the week to repair damage.

Spokeswoman Elisha Moreno asked people to be patient while crews work.

"We are getting some reports of customers getting aggressive with our crews, because they want their power restored," Moreno said.

"Please be patient with us, we need our space to work and to work safely. We understand that you're frustrated right now. But we are trying the best we can to get the power restored quickly."

On Saturday, workers had to contend with about 10 centimetres of snow that fell over higher elevations in the Vancouver area.

The utility said larger outages had priority, while individual ones would have to wait until early in the week before power is restored. Many of those affected are without heat and hot water.

The storm Friday was the third intense blast to hit the area in a week. It brought rain and winds gusting to 158 km/h.

Stanley Park closed because of downed trees

One of the hardest hit areas was Vancouver's landmark Stanley Park, which has been closed to the public until at least the middle of the week.

Park officials said they were worried that damaged trees could topple across paths.

Homeowners, insurance companies and others have been adding up the costs related to the storms. Damage was expected to be in the millions, if not tens of millions of dollars.

[RspctFrmCalgary]

More lights back on in B.C.
19/12/2006 11:14:36 AM
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B.C. Hydro crews worked through the night to restore power to thousands of homes that have been in the dark across the province since last week's storms.

CBC News
Last week's storms caused widespead damage across B.C.'s South Coast.

At the peak of the blackout, about 250,000 homes and businesses were without power.

Hydro spokeswoman Elisha Moreno says there are still 5,200 customers waiting for light in the Victoria area, and another 3,000 homes lost their power Tuesday night in Dawson Creek and Chetwynd in northeastern B.C.

She said crews have been hard at work restoring power in Sooke, west of Victoria, which had road access cut off by last Friday's massive windstorm.

Power in Sooke isn't expected to be fully restored until Wednesday.

There are also many homes in the community that remain unlivable. Sooke Mayor Janet Evans says 600 people used the local emergency reception centre over the weekend.

Hydro finally got repair trucks into the remote Vancouver Island community of Bamfield on Monday. The tiny village has been without power for more than a week.

The 10 trucks were taken in by barge from Port Alberni.

Pat Byers, who owns the general store in West Bamfield, told CBC News there are big trees down everywhere, power lines toppled and houses crushed.

Bamfield has been without power for eight days. It's the tenth outage this fall.

There's also a boil water advisory in effect. But with no electricity, some people have no way to boil anything, said Byers.

B.C. Hydro hopes to have power restored in Bamfield by Wednesday.

Meanwhile, another major weather challenge is expected in southwestern B.C., with more wind in the forecast for Wednesday afternoon.

[RspctFrmCalgary]

Just start to get over the last 3 storms and there's more big wind on the way.

89-90 km/hr expected down here .... worse up Island.

Now ... the reason for the thread in the first place

I finally watched the episode of Disasters of the Century.

The Hartford Circus fire. What a horrendous tragedy.

The second half of the show was about the Knickerbocker Theatre collapse in Washington, DC in 1922.

Both disasters resulted in tremendous loss of life.