{"id":927372,"date":"2026-10-10T05:04:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T05:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/927372\/"},"modified":"2026-10-10T05:04:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T05:04:11","slug":"strong-winds-topple-trees-knock-out-power-to-thousands-in-b-c-s-lower-mainland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/927372\/","title":{"rendered":"Strong winds topple trees, knock out power to thousands in B.C.’s Lower Mainland"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Text<\/p>\n

Listen to this article<\/p>\n

Estimated 2 minutes<\/p>\n

The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n

British Columbia’s Lower Mainland got an early taste of fall weather on Friday, with strong winds pummeling the region.<\/p>\n

Environment Canada’s Friday forecast for the region called for northwest winds gusting to 50 km\/h, with gusts up to 70 km\/h near the Strait of Georgia. <\/p>\n

B.C. Hydro says that at the peak of the storm, about 30,000 customers lost electricity.<\/p>\n

Spokesperson Moira Scott said Vancouver, Burnaby, Port Coquitlam and Surrey were the hardest hit.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

City of Vancouver crews work to clear a downed tree at Quebec Street and East Sixth Avenue on Friday, Oct. 9, 2026. (Nav Rahi\/CBC)<\/p>\n

“The outages were primarily caused by trees and branches coming into contact with our power lines and electrical equipment,” Scott said. <\/p>\n

“At this time of year right now, many of the trees have a significant amount of foliage, so that makes them a lot more susceptible to wind damage.”<\/p>\n

As of 7 p.m. PT, about 17,000 people were still without power, though Scott said the company hoped to have it restored to most customers by 8 p.m.<\/p>\n

A number of downed trees were spotted across the city, including one crushing a vehicle in Kitsilano, and a large tree downed in Douglas Park.<\/p>\n

CBC News has reached out to the City of Vancouver for a fuller accounting of damage, but has yet to hear back.<\/p>\n

Despite the strong winds, virtually all of B.C. Ferries’ sailings proceeded as scheduled, with the exception of several afternoon sailings between Texada Island and Powell River. <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Strong winds toppled this tree in Vancouver’s Douglas Park on Friday, Oct. 9, 2026. (Ian Hanomansing\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Scott said the storm was a good reminder to prepare a 72-hour emergency kit with water, food, batteries and a portable charger.<\/p>\n

“You obviously never know how much damage a storm is going to cause or how long you could be without power,” she said. “So we always encourage customers to be prepared.”<\/p>\n

Environment and Climate Change Canada said the weather was expected to continue into Friday evening, with a west wind of 30 km\/h gusting to 50 km\/h in the region, with gusts of up to 70 km\/h near the Strait of Georgia. <\/p>\n

Winds were forecast to drop to about 20 km\/h around midnight. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 2 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":927373,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,44],"class_list":["post-927372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=927372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/927373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=927372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=927372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=927372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}