Metro Vancouver’s North Shore battered by latest storm system

As B.C.’s south coast is still recovering from last week’s atmospheric river, another blast of heavy rain is battering Metro Vancouver’s North Shore in particular.

Utility and highway crews have been busy through the early hours of Monday morning, dealing with the risk of landslides along the Sea to Sky Highway and a widespread power outage in North and West Vancouver.

As of 7 a.m. Monday, over 15,000 homes and businesses in the municipalities were without power after what BC Hydro called a transmission circuit failure just before midnight Sunday that affected a swath of the North Shore from around Capilano Road in North Vancouver to 31st Street in West Vancouver between the ocean and the mountains.

The utility estimated the earliest “time on” for some neighbourhoods would be 11 a.m. Monday, but fewer than 200 customers were still affected by 9 a.m.

Meanwhile, B.C.’s Ministry of Transportation is watching the Sea to Sky Highway for the risk of rockfalls or landslides.

“Right now, our concerns are really in that area where we are seeing rain come onto a snowpack. The volumes of rain we are seeing along the Sea to Sky are certainly higher, but not to the degree where we are anticipating a significant amount of material,” explained regional deputy director Janelle Staite during a Sunday update.

“That said, we are aware of where some of these corridors or stretches of the highway where there is more risk, and we do have enhanced patrols looking for signs of any movement.”

Staite said the Ministry has been taking proactive measures along Highway 99.

“We are making sure all the drainage appliances — our culverts, our gaps in our barriers — are cleaned out so that water can flow in the path it’s designed to flow in as opposed to creating a new path.”

As of early Monday, the only issue on Highway 99 was much further to the north — a precautionary overnight closure from Mount Currie to Lillooet.

“Expected heavy rainfall overnight means there is a serious risk of more rockfalls, debris flows, and washouts,” read an advisory from DriveBC, which said Highway 1 was also under a precautionary closure in the Fraser Canyon from Hope to Lytton.

DriveBC issued a “Yellow Warning” for drivers Monday morning along Highway 99 from Squamish to Whistler and an “Orange Warning” for Highway 5 from Hope to Merritt and Highway 3 from Hope to Princeton.