By Brian Lee
I’m no more qualified to predict weather than the cat but it seems to me that this might be the year to go out and buy that generator you wished you had on those coffee-less winter mornings. We’ve been really lucky the last couple of years with few — if any —significant power outages. It’s partly due to an unlikely stretch of relatively calm winters but also, I think, to the active clearing by BC Hydro crews.
But this fall seems different. The sudden switch to winter’s inevitable southeast winds has been ominously abrupt. Environment Canada’s website has shown a strong wind warning (20-30 knots) or higher almost every day for weeks. In the last week, I’ve probably suffered more hours without power than all of last winter. And it’s not even November.
The recent caffeine-free, candlelit mornings reminded me that newcomers to the area are probably oblivious to how quickly our standard of living disappears when the wind blows. Recall the storms of December 2006 — the year Stanley Park took that terrible beating. On one of the worst nights, I happened to be in Powell River visiting a friend. When the ferries finally started running the next day, I landed in Earls Cove to find the Sunshine Coast Highway transformed into a twisted, one-lane tunnel of trees, branches and downed hydro lines. And when I did get home, my power didn’t return for five days.
As a general rule, it’s relatively easy to go without power for one or even two days. Hot water will run for awhile and when it chills, you can go to Sechelt for a swim and hot Chinese food. Or you can light candles and talk.
But everything changes after three days when rising temperatures in fridges and freezers start costing money in spoiled food. The rustic novelty is really lost on those without an alternative heat source where life quickly becomes an episode of Survivorman. Hopefully, thoughts turn to elderly neighbours and friends without wood heat because five days is a long time to be without power. But eight days is a really long time to go without power, which was the case in Egmont that year. I still feel a sense of survivor’s guilt over that one.
That 2006 storm stands out as a nasty one but it’s not that far from typical and if the start to this winter is any indication, we should expect some carnage. So, here’s a reminder to stock up on candles, batteries, headlamps and generators — because I don’t plan on sharing.
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