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Snow Adds to Southwestern B.C. Weather Woes After Another Vicious Windstorm

Posted on: Wednesday, 10 January 2007, 12:00 CST

VANCOUVER (CP) - Snow has added to B.C. weather woes, coming in the wake of another fierce windstorm to lash the south coast.

The snow began falling Tuesday night as the temperature plunged. Environment Canada said up to 10 centimetres was expected in Greater Victoria and the Fraser Valley, and five centimetres in Greater Vancouver. The winds, gusting to 100 kilometres an hour, knocked out power to more than 115,000 homes at the peak of Tuesday's storm.

Almost 40,000 customers from Nanaimo to Chilliwack were still in the dark early Wednesday as B.C. Hydro crews work to repair the outages.

The storm also toppled more trees in wind-battered Stanley Park, including one that fell on a woman.

The cleanup and replanting bill is expected to run into the millions of dollars.

In the Interior, the B.C. Highways Ministry issued a long list of travel advisories because of heavy snow, blowing snow and the threat of avalanches.

Parks Canada closed the Trans-Canada Highway between Revelstoke and Golden through the Selkirk Mountains after a large avalanche.

The slide sent debris two metres deep and 150 metres long across the highway, and left a 270-metre swath covering the CP Rail line.

The route was reopened early Wednesday but Highway 1 was closed east of Golden, B.C., to the Alberta border because of a high avalanche hazard.

Source: Canadian Press

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