Most BC Hydro customers still not prepared for major storm, despite experiencing most damaging event last year

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Despite experiencing the most damaging winter storm in the history of the province last December, it seems many British Columbians aren’t that interested in preparing for more wicked weather.

“About 60 per cent of British Columbians aren’t prepared for storm season, and only half of British Columbians that we surveyed actually have an emergency preparedness kit,” Tanya Fish with BC Hydro explains. “We were surprised by the number of people that weren’t prepared for storm season.”

She admits it’s kind of surprising, considering more than 750,000 homes and businesses had their power knocked out during the storm last winter.

BC Hydro has found that people outside of Metro Vancouver and urban centres are more likely to be prepared with things like a flashlight, extra batteries, a first aid kit, and any required prescription medications. This is likely because they’re used to be left on their own a little more than people on the south coast — who are apparently the worst for not being prepared.

“We found that British Columbians actually on Vancouver Island and those that were impacted by the storm are getting a bit more prepared than other customers in the province,” Fish explains. “So we found that, out of all British Columbians that we surveyed, those on Vancouver Island, as well as those customers in the north, are the most prepared for power outages. They also think that being without power for up to 24 hours after a major storm event is reasonable.”

Outages like the one in 2018 put a major strain on the grid, Fish notes.

“The big storm we had last year, obviously the biggest storm in our history, a number of challenges. Customers were without power for multiple days in the hardest-hit regions. Obviously, it creates some concerns for us, as well, just given the safety of our customers out there. So we really try to get the message out there: Check on your neighbours. If you’re not prepared, if you know you’re neighbours are not prepared, reach out to the other people in the community to try to get them to help each other.”

Fish says BC Hydro has implemented a number of improvements after hearing from customers following last winter’s storm.

Changes include a new communication tool for crews out in the field to help relay information back to operations, which then passes updates on to customers.

For the record, Fish says she has two emergency preparedness kits.

Read the full report:

BC Hydro report; storm preparedness Nov 2019

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