10-01-07, 19:14
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Well, BC still getting it with the extremes!!!
Quote:
January 10, 2007
Snow hits B.C. after another windstorm
A broken tree lies on top a Vancouver Parks Board vehicle in Stanley Park during a wind storm in Vancouver, B.C. Tuesday, January 9, 2007. High winds have once-again toppled trees and forced a closure of the park.
(CP PHOTO/Richard Lam)
VANCOUVER (CP) - The latest wind and snowstorm to gallop through British Columbia brought more than just inconvenience, it left people coping with dangerous conditions in many parts of the province.
Rescuers were trying to reach motorists stranded in a blizzard Wednesday on a road near Dawson Creek in northeastern B.C. Heavy snow and gusting winds disrupted travel on roads in the Peace region overnight, leaving motorists stuck on a road between the Hart Highway and the Alaska Highway.
Emergency crews, RCMP and highway maintenance crews were working to reach them.
Radio stations broadcast warnings on Wednesday telling stranded people to remain in their vehicles until emergency crews can reach them. They were told to periodically run their vehicles to stay warm and keep a window slightly open to avoid carbon monoxide poisoning.
Temperatures in northeastern B.C. were about -40 C with the wind chill.
The snow began falling Tuesday night as the temperature plunged. Environment Canada said up to 10 centimetres were 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.
It wasn't immediately clear if weather was a factor when a truck trying to board a B.C. Ferries vessel plunged into the water Tuesday night.
The ferry unexpectedly pulled away from the dock at Nanaimo, on Vancouver Island. The driver was able to scramble out of his pickup truck, which hung up on the loading ramp before plunging into the water below.
No one was injured.
The ferry had been bound for Gabriola Island, just a 10-minute sail away from Nanaimo.
The driver, a Gabriola resident, had been signalled by a deckhand to load, said B.C. Ferries president David Hahn. Then he was signalled to stop.
Then the deckhand shouted at the man to get out of the truck.
"He handled it very well," said Hahn, who spoke with the man. "He was shook up, as I know I would be. I've got to give him credit. He said, 'I'm just glad I didn't get wet.' "
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2...257439-cp.html
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