2015 British Columbia blackout

A blackout affected more than 100,000 residents living in Coquitlam, Port Moody, and Port Coquitlam in the Canadian province of British Columbia on August 29-30, 2015. It was the worst blackout for the province in less than a decade. The cause of the power outage was the result of a wind storm that shut down a generator and wiped out a power grid in the Lower Mainland. The blackout lasted for more than 24 hours, beginning at 12:20pm PST August 29, and ending the next day at 4:35pm.

Blackout

The blackout began with a windstorm that knocked over trees and blew away branches sometime in the early morning of August 29, 2015. Later around noon, a generator blew out, with most of the electricity going out in neighbourhoods in Coquitlam, Port Moody, and Port Coquitlam, with certain buildings equipped with partial emergency lighting and businesses closing for the day as a result of the blackout. Reports also surfaced that people saw sparks blow up on cables in neighbourhoods. The wind levels were at a high velocity of 60mph at the time of the blackout. People who were desperate of getting warm food either had to travel to nearby Burnaby to order, resulting in cramped lineups. The same also happened in select businesses in Port Coquitlam, with cramped lineups also occurring there. The next day, BC Hydro stated that the power to the homes should resume by midnight August 31, 2015, but resumed 6 hours earlier than most expected. However, some local areas of BC took longer to regain power.