WATCH: Jordan Armstrong speaks with BC Hydro spokesperson Simi Heer about when people can expect power to be restored – and why their website went down today
UPDATE: BC Hydro has provided estimates for when they expect power to be restored in the Metro Vancouver area
In power outages large and small, people in communities across British Columbia have come to rely on BC Hydro’s website to let them know exactly where power is out, and when it will be restored.
But in the largest storm this decade, it was the website itself that went dark.
At 10 p.m. on Saturday, they were able to tweet out a PDF to a list of outages and estimated restoration times.
READ: The full list of Hydro outages, as of noon Sunday, is below.
“It’s very frustrating. I apologize to our customers for that inconvenience,” said BC Hydro spokesperson Simi Heer this evening, after hours of people across the province being unable to find out exactly when they’ll be able to turn the lights back on.
“The tech teams are working on it, we hope to have it back up later today,” she said.
That will come as little solace to some of the approximately 500,000 customers in B.C. who were without power at some point today.
As the day progressed, BC Hydro’s Twitter account began to fill the gap left by the website, providing estimates of power outages per region, and asking for patience with the situation.
Heer wouldn’t commit to any specific customer service review at this point.
“Our focus is to get people back up, make sure we’re doing everything we can do restore power, and we’ll look into questions like tomorrow and in the days following.”
Nonetheless, Heer says that when it comes to the key task of turning back on the lights for hundreds of thousands in the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island, Hydro is on track.
“We’re hitting this with full forces with as many crews as possible. They simply have to go through those trouble calls one at a time. We have hundreds and hundreds of calls they have to respond to.”
PHOTOS: A visual look at the largest South Coast storm in a decade
Crews from as far away as Prince George are being called in to help with the sheer amount that needs to be done. BC Hydro originally hoped all power would be restored by noon on Sunday. Their goal is now 12:30 a.m.
Until then, more than 180,000 British Columbians continue to wait.
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