Gabriola Island residents hopeful BC Hydro repairs will mean end of power rationing

Residents of Gabriola Island are crossing their fingers that they’ll be able to stop rationing electricity Friday night.

Global News spoke with numerous residents on the island, who say they’re frustrated after being told to cut all but essential electricity use for a week.

The rationing is due to a storm last Friday that knocked down power lines and snapped the island’s fiber optic cable, according to BC Hydro.

That left the island with just a single circuit, rather than the two that would normally keep the island electrified.

Ted Olynyk, community relations manager for the Crown Corporation, said he understands residents’ frustrations, and that crews are grateful that people have co-operated.

“It allowed us to keep power on to the whole island during this period, otherwise we might have had to have rolling outages on the island because there can only be so much capacity on the line,” he said.

“We had to restring the line from Gabriola over to Mudge (Island), so it required a helicopter, we had to have co-operative weather, had to do it in daylight, want to make sure the job is done safely. Wasn’t just temporary repairs, we made complete repairs.”

In the meantime, Telus provided a signal booster outside of the island’s firehall in an effort to enhance cell service for first responders.

The incident has also raised concerns about the island’s emergency preparedness.

According to the island’s fire chief, there were 24 calls for service during the six-day span, one serious enough to require a helicopter.

Olynyk said BC Hydro is cautiously optimistic the crews will be able to finish their work Friday night, allowing residents to get back to normal.