On October 10th, a windstorm took down several trees, resulting in three small fires in Tiber Bay.

BC Hydro advises the public to call 9-1-1 if they see a power line on the ground. Photo by Loni Taylor.

Cortes Island consists almost entirely of rainforest, and all the roads are lined with above-ground power lines. Ted Olynyk, a representative for BC Hydro says: “that's the number one cause of outages in British Columbia- vegetation. In BC we have more trees per kilometre of utility line than any place else in North America. On Vancouver Island, we have three times that amount and I've been to Cortes many times and I can tell you probably with certainty, with no numbers, that Cortes is probably even more than that.”

BC Hydro protocol for downed lines focuses on safety first. Olynyk clarifies what community members should do depending on these circumstances. 

“If a tree's on the line, and powers out, Call BC Hydro 1-800 BC HYDRO. If a line is on the ground, that's not a power issue anymore. That's a public safety issue. So we tell people, stay 10 meters back. Length of a city bus… you don't know if the line could still be energized. We try to bring it back on, or someone has a generator and it's wired improperly. So if you see a downed line, call 9 1 1 - because at that point it's a public safety issue.” - Ted Olynyk

To find out more about safety protocol around damaged power lines, listen to the CKTZ News Update below: