For some sa国际传媒 Hydro customers, the power came back on just in time for New Year鈥檚 Eve celebrations. For all customers, however, the Dec. 20 windstorm was a reminder of how quickly we can end up in the cold and dark.
On Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands and parts of the mainland, more than 750,000 customers were without power after winds of 70 to 100 kilometres an hour and more lashed the coast. Although Hydro crews responded quickly and laboured relentlessly, some customers waited 11 days before they saw the lights flicker on.
It wasn鈥檛 a hurricane or a tornado, just a big windstorm, but it was more than enough to send trees crashing into power lines and snap power poles. More than 1,900 spans of wire and 390 power poles had to be repaired. Another 228 transformers were knocked out.
The power utility says this was the worst storm in its history, and it will learn from the event. Dispatchers at the 911 centres were overwhelmed with calls, which delayed response, and some customers couldn鈥檛 get accurate updates on their outages.
But all those calamities have lessons for the rest of us. We have to be prepared to get by if we call 911 and no one answers, or if the answer is that it will be days before crews can restore power.
Eventually, it won鈥檛 be wind that brings down the power lines, it will be a massive earthquake. When that happens, all the problems we saw on Dec. 20 will be multiplied.
sa国际传媒 Hydro promises to be better prepared next time. The rest of us have to make the same promise.
