Rain and wind kept BC Hydro crews busy early this week.
Heavy winds caused 8,700 BC Hydro customers in the Campbell River area to lose power on Monday.
Stephen Watson, spokesperson for BC Hydro, says about 6,500 had their power restored throughout the day and approximately 2,200 customers went through the night without power.
Watson said Tuesday, after the Mirror went to press, that power should be restored to all customers by the end of the day.
“The sheer number of outages and access issues due to high winds were major challenges for BC Hydro crews to safely re-energize to customers,” Watson said. “The three primary pockets out today (Tuesday) are the Sayward area, a large section of Quadra, and Cortes Island.”
Hydro also had to deal with heavy rain last week.
Weekend rain storms dropped significant rainfall and increased Lower Campbell Reservoir levels to near full.
However, as of Tuesday morning the reservoir sat at 219.65 metres and as the week wears on, will slowly decline through to next week, Watson said.
“BC Hydro will hold the 80 m3/s flow down the (Elk Falls) canyon through Oct.7 to control the reservoir levels and to bring them down to more seasonal levels,” Watson said.
“BC Hydro continues its advisory for the public to stay away from the Campbell River through Oct. 7.”
On that date, BC Hydro plans to reduce the spill down the canyon to normal base flow, which will bring the Campbell River flow to more seasonal levels, around 122 m3/s.