The combination of rain, strong winds and high tides that led to flooding on Vancouver Island over the weekend has likely peaked, but shoreline areas could be affected for a few days, says an Environment sa国际传媒 meteorologist.
An advisory that ocean levels could remain high is still in effect, and people are being warned to be mindful of debris near the coast.
Meteorologist Armel Castellan said significant rain on the Island’s west coast and the capital region is expected today and Wednesday, including 80 to 100 millimetres around Port Renfrew.
Greater Victoria could see 20 to 40 millimetres, with up to 50 mm on the West Shore and the Saanich Peninsula — possibly triggering a rainfall warning.
The River Forecast Centre issued a high-streamflow advisory Monday for north and west Vancouver Island.
The weekend storm surge led to flooding in areas including Esquimalt’s Macaulay Point Park and the Esplanade in Oak Bay, as well as a pre-emptive closure at Whiffin Spit in Sooke.
The Whiffin Spit reopened Sunday with a warning that the main path should be considered a nature trail for the next few months, since comprehensive maintenance won’t be done until the storm season is over.
“The spit always gets very wind-blown this time of year,” said Sooke Mayor Maja Tait, who noted wind-related ferry cancellations stymied several Sooke residents who were planning to head to Saturday night’s Vancouver Canucks game.
Oak Bay public-works crews were kept busy over the weekend clearing storm-related beach debris, and needed a backhoe to clear the detritus from the beach at McNeill Bay, spokesperson Hayley Goodgrove said.
Crews headed to Cattle Point at the north end of Willows Beach on Monday to clear logs that were clogging one of the boat ramps in the aftermath of the storm, she said.
There was wet snow on the Malahat on Monday, after icy conditions in Nanaimo on Sunday led to a crash involving three vehicles that sent one person to hospital.
Nanaimo RCMP Reserve Const. Gary O’Brien warned motorists to watch their speed at this time of year because of the danger posed by icy roads or the possibility of hydroplaning during heavy rain.
About 20,000 customers on Vancouver Island were without power at the peak of weekend winds that reached gusts of 100 kilometres per hour in some areas.
sa国际传媒 Hydro crews had the numbers down by Monday afternoon to 800 on the south Island and 70 in northern communities.
The Gulf Islands were especially hard hit, said sa国际传媒 Hydro spokesperson Ted Olynyk.
“It was downed trees from the wind, evenly spread to all the islands,” said Olynyk, adding the storm seemed to come in waves. “Saturday morning we had about 20,000 people affected on Vancouver Island. Then we got the numbers down and it went back up again.”
A motor-vehicle crash Sunday night in Central Saanich led to a post-storm outage for over 3,000 people due to downed wires, he said.
Highway 17A reopened just before 8 a.m. Monday after closing Sunday night after power lines went down along a 4.1-kilometre stretch between Mount Newton Cross Road in Central Saanich and McTavish Road in North Saanich.
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