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Greater Victoria avoids wind damage

In the end, it remained all quiet on the weather front in Greater Victoria.
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This boat that drifted onto the Saanich side of Cadboro Bay Road remains there two weeks after the most “destructive” wind storm in the history of BC Hydro. (Black Press File).

In the end, it remained all quiet on the weather front in Greater Victoria.

Wind warnings for Greater Victoria did not materialize Sunday morning, as 2,000 B.C. Hydro customers remain without power across B.C.’s south coast.

“I was expecting something big, but there is absolutely nothing,” said Eric Dahli, a Cadboro Bay resident, when asked of the wind warning that Environment Canada issued “It’s all sunny and clear.”

A survey of various social media feeds and an admittedly unscientific drive through the region confirmed this view.

RELATED: UPDATE: 2,000 customers without power as strong winds batter B.C.’s south coast

Environment Canada had issued a wind warning for the region, along with Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley, and eastern Vancouver Island.

The agency said a sharp Pacific low pressure system was expected to bring southwest wind gusts of 80 to 90 kilometres per hour to the Lower Mainland.

Vancouver Island was forecast to receive southwest winds of 60 to 70 kilometres per hour, with wind gusts of up to 90 kilometres per hour.

RELATED: BC Hydro calls December storm ‘most destructive in history’

RELATED: Heavy rains force sewage overflows on beaches across Greater Victoria

But Environment Canada lifted it Sunday morning, likely much to the pleasure of local travellers, as well as local safety and B.C. Hydro crews, who have spent the last two weeks dealing with the effects of several windstorms, none more powerful than the storm that blew across the region on Dec. 27.

That windstorm — which B.C. Hydro called the most “destructive in history” — left at one point more than 750,000 customers without power, while causing havoc in both large and small ways. Among other outcomes, it also pushed ketch onto the Saanich side of Cadboro Bay.

Efforts to tow boat into the ocean have so far failed, and it remains on the beach.

At least, others won’t be joining it.

This said, some parts of the Greater Victoria area are having to deal with downed powerlines and closed roads.

Highway 14 remains closed east of Jordan River because of a downed powerline, and it is not clear yet, when it will re-open.


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wolfgang.depner@saanichnews.com