Wednesday windstorm knocked out power to 5,200 Richmond homes
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Updated: November 19, 2009 2:27 PM
Richmond residents can expect more high winds on Thursday night, according to Environment Canada, though the gusts shouldn't be as powerful as those felt Wednesday evening, which were strong enough to topple a tree in the centre of the city.
According to B.C. Hydro's Dag Sharman, more than 5,200 Richmond homes were without power for a few hours Wednesday night when a tree was knocked into some power lines.
Despite the terrible weather, which saw wind gusts of up to 90 kilometres per hour, B.C. Hydro crews managed to quickly restore power and effect repairs before most homeowners had turned in for the evening. (Thursday night winds are expected to reach 60 kilometres per hour.)
The outage was on a feeder line that also led to Delta, and affected residents north of Blundell Road, between No. 4 and Garden City. According to B.C. Hydro, residents east of Minoru Boulevard, and west of No. 7 Road, and between Bridgeport Road to the north and Horseshoe Way to the south were also impacted.
Despite the fact traffic lights at four major intersections were without power, many local drivers were clueless about the rules in such a situation.
There was one close call at Blundell Road and Garden City, where the driver of a four-door sedan creeped into the intersection, only to stamp on his brakes as another sedan whooshed through the intersection, apparently oblivious to inactive traffic lights and the darkness that blanketed the entire area, including Garden City Shopping Centre, starting around 6:15 p.m.
Power was restored a little more than three hours later.
