BC Hydro is now calling the windstorm that hammered the province just before Christmas the most destructive in the utility’s history.

“It impacted more customers and did more damage than any storm before it.”

Hydro spokesperson Mora Scott says it wasn’t just the destruction it was also the response.

“It also required the biggest mobilization of people. equipment, and materials that BC Hydro has had to deal with in its history.”

She notes even with the massive response it took days to get the power restored.

“It did impact more than 750,000 customers. 400,000 of those were in the lower mainland and Fraser Valley. About 350,000 of those customers were on Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands. That is really significant because that accounts for about 80% of our customers in those two regions. We also saw more damage than in any other storm. Thousands of pieces of electrical equipment were damages or destroyed.”

Scott says BC Hydro is assessing its response and any improvements already noting some customer complaints.

“They had some challenges in trying to report downed lines to 911 because operators were overwhelmed. We will take that away and work with our community partners to try to improve that. We also heard from some of our customers that they did have some trouble finding specific information about their particular outage.”

Mora says Hydro has seen the amount of severe weather events triple in the last five years.

She says technology is playing a role in allowing Hydro to respond to the increased wrath of Mother Nature.

More says for example the smart meter network allows them to better locate and respond to outages.