The wind storm that raged Monday left about 350 residents in North Saanich still waiting for the power to come back well into Tuesday.
As of Wednesday morning there were still 2,500 residents on the south Island still without power, according to the B.C. Hydro website. More than 200 residents in pockets of Central Saanich also awaited the return of electricity.
Thousands of customers were without power most or all of the day yesterday as winds gusted up to 100 km/h across the Saanich Peninsula. The high wind caused trees to splinter and fall across the region.
"We've started cleanup, but as people are starting to get up and walk our trails – we've got a significant trail system – we're getting all sorts of reports of trees down," said Brian Robinson, works superintendent for North Saanich. "There was no area in North Saanich that was untouched."
The damage could have been worse, he said, B.C. Hydro has been in the area doing vegetation management – removing danger trees – since before Christmas.
"It was the unique wind, the last one we had was 2008. It was a pretty significant storm for us," he said. "We had significant road closures yesterday."
While he couldn't pinpoint how many trees came down across that municipality, there were significant road closures including Wain Road, Ardmore Drive, Towner Park Road, Laurel Road and Clayton Road.
"There were a fair number," Robinson said. "We'll probably be the rest of this week and into next week as far as storm debris cleanup goes."
The rush for firefighters in North Saanich started with a 6 a.m. call to Lands End.
"We had roughly 20 calls in a span of four hours," said Steve Knapp, deputy chief with North Saanich fire. "Most of it was trees down across power lines or across the road."
Two major events caused significant damage, but no injuries.
"One house on Swartz Bay Road took a tree through the roof itself," Knapp said. While the residents were home, everyone was safe.
In the Ardmore area, three men pulled up where a tree was down and after they got out of the vehicle the tree came down across the bed and cab of the pickup.
"There was no area in North Saanich that was not untouched," Robinson said.
West Saanich Road, where several trees came down is maintained by Mainroad Contracting. The rest of the District of Central Saanich was kept busy with wind calls as well.
"It was busy yesterday. We dealt with numerous calls for trees down," said Norman Doerksen, superintendent of public works for Central Saanich. They had about 30 tree-related incidents on roads. "We probably lost over 25 trees just in Centennial Park alone."
"We've still got areas that are still blocked off today," Doerksen said Tuesday. There were still significant power outages in that district well into Tuesday afternoon.
Doerksen figures on a week's worth of cleanup.
"There will be lots of chipping," he said. "Hopefully we don't get any more."
There were fortunately no structure fires, but plenty of hazards in Central Saanich as trees fell as well. Central Saanich fire answered about 20 calls in a two-hour span that wound down by 9:30 a.m. West Saanich, Alec and McPhail roads were all hit hard and still awaited some fallen tree clearing late into Tuesday.
"We'd have public works barricade a road, and people just drive around the barricades and drive over the lines," said fire chief Ron French. "It's frustrating for us because we're out there to make it as safe as possible for people."
In Sidney the most significant public damage was to the southern portion of the waterside walkway along Lochside Drive.
"We had some damage done, but fortunately no one was hurt," said Randy Humble, acting chief administrative officer for the Town of Sidney. About 160 metres of the path remain closed.
In Tsehum Harbour boats were battered up on shore and a couple of trees came down, one on a home, in Summergate Village.
"We had some damage at the Sidney ferry terminal," Humble added. The concession building there suffered some roof damage, as did a building near Port Side Marina, where a sheet of metal roofing blew off.
"In 15 years I don't think I've seen winds that strong," Humble said.
Trees and debris kept Sidney fire busy through the day as well.
"We had at least a dozen calls for everything from wires down and transformer fires to branches on fire and live wires down," said Sidney fire chief Jim Tweedhope.
"There was no injuries involved with any of the calls we went on, there was just potential safety hazards."
A tree top snapped and took the lines out on Mills Road near Pleasant Road. A fire crew closed the road and awaited Hydro on site for six hours.
"I can't recall it ever blowing that hard here," said Tweedhope, who's been with Sidney fire 23 years and lived in the area since 1964. "It was pretty incredible."