EXTREME WEATHER: Powerful Windstorm Hits British Columbia - Knocks Out Power, Cancels Ferries And Closes Schools!

A BC Hydro crew repairs a downed power line on Thursday morning in Metro Vancouver. (GP Mendoza/CBC)

March 10, 2016 - BRITISH COLUMBIA - Powerful winds downed trees and power lines, closed schools and forced BC Ferries to cancel several sailings along the South Coast of B.C. on Thursday morning.

At 10 a.m. PT BC Hydro was reporting about 110,000 customers on the Lower Mainland, including Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley and the Sunshine Coast were without power.

More than 10,000 customers were also without power on Vancouver Island during the height of the storm.

BC Hydro was reporting about 110,000 customers were without power on Thursday morning. (BC Hydro/Google Maps)

The power outages also knocked out power to several traffic lights, creating delays for morning commuters. Check with @CBCTraffic on Twitter for updates.

The winds began Wednesday night and appeared to have subsided by Thursday morning. But then a new wind warning issued at 6 a.m. PT said strong southerly winds with gusts up to 90 km/h were occurring over much of Metro Vancouver and the Western Fraser Valley this morning.

Exposed coastal sections of East Vancouver Island, the Southern Gulf Islands and the Sunshine Coast were also seeing southeast winds of 60 to 80 km/h as a deep low pressure centre moved north of Vancouver Island, according to Environment Canada.

Still seeing a lot of power outages and debris/trees blocking traffic. Please be very careful this morning! #CBC

— CBC Vancouver (@CBCTraffic) March 10, 2016

Be safe out there this morning, still several warnings in place for the passing #BCstorm https://t.co/9EJTt2zawK pic.twitter.com/iuA0lenwI7

— EC_BCweather (@EC_BCweather) March 10, 2016

Winds are expected to ease to southwest 40 gusting to 60 km/h later this morning.

DriveBC was reporting Highway 101 on the Sunshine Coast was closed by a fallen tree near Mercer Road at 8 a.m. A tree was also reported to be down on Highway 1 near 208 Street in Surrey.

#BCHwy1 EB Tree down after 208th St in Right Lane. @MainroadLM is on route. Drive Safely. pic.twitter.com/bMsvWz53UR

— Lower Mainland Dist. (@TranBC_LMD) March 10, 2016

BC Ferries was also reporting that the wind was delaying the departure of some sailings on the Duke Point-Tsawwassen route on Thursday morning.

#BCFHeadsUp#QuadraIsland - #CortesIsland vessel cancelled first round trip due to weather
7:50 xCortes CANCELLED
9:05 xQuadra CANCELLED ^dg

— BC Ferries (@BCFerries) March 10, 2016

Sailings on several shorter routes, including the Powell River-Comox and Campbell River-Quadra Island routes, were also cancelled because of the wind, early Thursday morning.

Harbour Air was reporting that some float plane traffic was affected by the winds.

Select routes are being affected by wind this morning. Pls check https://t.co/xANpvtlKpM for your up to date flight status

— Harbour Air Seaplane (@HarbourAirLtd) March 10, 2016

School closures
The power outages have also cancelled classes at some schools, including some in Coquitlam, Surrey, Mission and Abbotsford and one in West Vancouver.

Parents are advised to check their district websites for more details.

In Surrey the closed schools included:

• Elgin Park Secondary
• Clayton Heights Secondary
• Fraser Heights Secondary
• Hazelgrove Elementary
• Bothwell Elementary
• Pacific Heights Elementary
• Chantrell Creek Elementary
• Prince Charles Elementary
• Royal Heights Elementary
• East Kensington Elementary
• Coast Meridian Elementary

There are some other Surrey schools without power, but remain open, said a statement from the district.
In Abbotsford the following schools are closed for the day:

• Ten Broeck Elementary
• Clearbrook Elementary
• Dr. R.Bondar Elementary
• South Poplar Elementary.
• King Elementary is also now closed; parents asked to come and pick up children if possible.

In Mission the following schools were closed:

• Hillside Elementary School
• Hatzic Elementary School
• Hatzic Middle School
• Riverside Technical College

The Coquitlam School District website said, "Power is currently out at some schools in the Mary Hill and North Port Coquitlam/Victoria Drive region.  We currently do not have an estimated time for the return of power.  All parents should ensure the care and safety of their children in getting them to school.

"All SD43 schools are open today and starting classes at regularly scheduled times until further specific school closure updates are made. As always, it is at the discretion of parents as to whether they send their children to school."

All #SD43 schools are open today and starting classes at regularly scheduled times until further specific school closure updates are made.

— School District 43 (@sd43bc) March 10, 2016

Collingwood School in West Vancouver was reporting that its Wentworth Campus would be closed until the power is restored. The Morven campus was operating normally.

High watersThe municipality of Delta reported localized flooding in the Boundary Bay Spruce Grove waterfront areas, where the tide was expected to peak around 6:16 a.m. PT.

#DeltaBC crews are assisting residents w/ sandbags & pumps in flooded areas. Water going over wall in #Tsawwassen: pic.twitter.com/aJlYTj3MHw

— Corporation of Delta (@CorpDelta) March 10, 2016

The B.C. River Forecast Centre issued a High Streamflow Advisory for Central Vancouver Island including the Somass River and smaller tributaries in the region. - CBC.

EXTREME WEATHER: Major Coastal Storm Hits British Columbia, Canada - Dumps Significant Rainfall; Leaves Thousands Without Power; Triggers Avalanche Warnings!

Snow fallling on the Coquihalla highway at the summit at 10 a.m. PT Sunday. (DriveBC)

January 19, 2015 - BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA - Avalanche warnings are in effect throughout the B.C. Interior today as the coastal storm that brought significant rainfall overnight moves inland and turns to snow.

The storm was accompanied by strong winds that left at one point left 25,000 B.C. Hydro customers without power. Vancouver Island was the hardest hit.

There were also power outages in parts of the Lower Mainland and the Sunshine Coast.

Power to many areas was restored by noon, although areas of Central and North Saanich were without power until 6 p.m. PT according to B.C. Hydro.

A wind storm knocked out power to 25,000 customers on Vancouver island Sunday morning. (B.C. Hydro)

Environment Canada says the storm will generate another 25 mm of rain in the Fraser Valley Sunday bringing the total rainfall in the valley from the storm to about 50 mm. It says localized flooding in some areas is possible.

Heavy snow is forecast for highway passes in B.C. with the Coquihalla Highway expected to receive up to 30 cm of snow by Monday morning.

The Pacific frontal system moving across the B.C. Interior will also bring 10 to 15 cm of snow to Roger's Pass and a further 10 to 15 cm to Alison and Kootenay Passes along Highway 3 today.

The Kootenay Pass shown here on a DriveBC camera was closed for three hours Sunday morning for avalanche control. (DriveBC)

An Avalanche Canada map of the province shows avalanche danger ratings ranging from "considerable" to "high" throughout B.C.

The Trans-Canada Highway west of Revelstoke is closed until noon for avalanche control and the Kootenay Pass was closed for three hours for the same reason Sunday morning. - CBC News.

PLAGUES & PESTILENCES: H1N1 Pandemic - H1N1 Flu Surge In British Columbia Lower Mainland Lands People In ICUs As 3 More Die Of The Flu Virus In Michigan, With Dozen Others On Life Support!

January 04, 2014 - NORTH AMERICA - The number of people hospitalized due to a severe form of H1N1 influenza, or swine flu, this winter is climbing in North America, according to health officials.

H1N1 Flu Surge In British Columbia Lower Mainland Lands People In ICUs.

The chief medical officer for a B.C. Lower Mainland health authority says that more than a dozen patients are in intensive care, some on ventilators, because of the H1N1 flu virus.

Dr. Paul Van Buynder, with Fraser Health, said Friday that 15 patients, many of them otherwise healthy, young people, were recently admitted to hospitals in the region.

"It is a lot for us at this particular time, especially because there is not a lot of circulating disease in the community at this point, and so we're worried that this has happened to so many people so quickly," he said.

He says the ages of the patients turning up with H1N1 flu span the spectrum, and include those in their 30s. He also said at least one of the patients is pregnant, and also that one person may have died from this flu strain.

"I have one person who hasn't been confirmed, but I'm pretty sure did pass away from this," Van Buynder told CBC News.

Van Buynder said medical officials are seeing small pockets of H1N1 breaking out across the region, in a pattern mirroring the flu's spread in Alberta, Ontario and Texas.

The H1N1 flu outbreak of 2009, which the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic, prompted mass immunizations across Canada.

Van Buynder said anyone visiting a hospital or health facility in B.C. will either need to wear a mask, or be vaccinated against the flu — and he said that previous vaccinations against H1N1 may not help anymore due to mutations in the virus.

"Certainly we don't think everybody should be reassured by previously being vaccinated, and we'd like them to make sure that they go out and get it again," he said.

Fraser Health serves more than 1.6 million people from Burnaby to Hope, to Boston Bar. - CBC.

3 More Die Of H1N1 Flu In Michigan, With Dozen Others On Life Support.

Potentially deadly H1N1 — the influenza virus strain behind the 2009 pandemic — continues its resurgence in Michigan, with three more deaths reported by hospital officials.

About a dozen adults and children — patients who previously were healthy — have been on life support at the University of Michigan Health System’s hospitals because of the virus, according to the hospital system.

Three adults have died, according to a health system spokeswoman. An infant from central Michigan also has died from H1N1, according to the Michigan Department of Community Health.

“These deaths are among previously healthy individuals. This is not the group that the public usually thinks about as being susceptible to serious illness with influenza,” said Dr. Matt Davis, chief medical executive for the state health department and a U-M professor of pediatrics and communicable diseases and of internal medicine.

Many of the hospitalized patients were transferred to U-M from other hospitals because their flu was so severe.


WATCH: H1N1 targeting young adults this flu season.

In addition to traditional ventilators, the U-M health system offers extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, or ECMO, technology for patients who can no longer breathe on their own. The machinery supports not only the patient’s lungs, as a ventilator does, but also the heart, Davis said.

It appears the sickest patients either didn’t get the flu vaccine or received it shortly before getting sick, said Dr. Sandro Cinti, an infectious diseases doctor at U-M and at the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System. It takes two full weeks for the vaccine to be fully effective.

“This looks like 2009, but this time we have a vaccine,” he said.

At the same time, patients in less-severe condition are recuperating in other area hospitals. According to state surveillance reports, 11 Michigan hospitals — part of monitoring efforts — reported 121 hospitalizations because of flu as of Saturday.

Flu activity was slow in the fall but surged in the final weeks of December, prompting the Michigan Department of Community Health to upgrade its flu activity reporting to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from “local” activity to “regional.”

Cinti said it’s tough to predict the trajectory of flu season going forward.

Extreme cold weather might shut down schools, which can be flu hot spots. But it also forces people to stay inside and in close proximity with those who might be infected.

The key, he said, is not the weather — it’s prevention.

(Chuck Stoody/The Canadian Press)

But some consumers remain reluctant, fearing they will get the flu from the flu shot or that vaccines cause autism — theories that research repeatedly has proven wrong, said Cinti, who also cared for patients in the 2009 pandemic before a vaccine became available.

Maria Young hears it too — what she calls “old wives’ tales.”

Young is the owner of University Pharmacy on the Wayne State University campus. It administers more than 5,000 vaccines or more each year, but there’s still plenty of resistance, too.

Some clients — even police officers and firefighters — are still squeamish about needles. And there’s a push back against public health campaigns and doctors’ advice, she said.

“People just don’t like to be told what to do,” she said. - The Times Herald.

EARTH CHANGES: West Coast Storm Batters British Columbia!

Another wind storm hit the West Coast of British Columbia on Monday forcing the cancellation of several ferry routes, knocking out power to thousands and closing some highways with flooding.

Environment Canada's 10:40 a.m. forecast was calling for southeast winds of 90 to 120 km/hr over the North Coast and 60 to 80 km/hr over the southern coast to persist into the afternoon. The storm is also dumping heavy rain on the coast, particularly in the Howe Sound area which is expected to get soaked with 90 mm of rain by Tuesday morning, and the Central Coast region which will get up to 80 mm by Tuesday morning. By 1:30 p.m. PT nearly 18,000 BC Hydro customers on Vancouver Island and about 12,000 customers around the Lower Mainland and Sunshine Coast were without power as high winds swept through the region. About 4,000 customers in the south and central Interior also were without power on Monday afternoon. BC Ferries cancelled several sailings up and down the coast including the main route between Victoria and Vancouver on Monday morning.

Ferries spokesman Deborah Marshall said a noon ferry from Swartz Bay was able to leave just a little late, and she expected the 2 p.m. sailing to leave Tswawassen on time. "Down here in the Victoria area [the winds] have dropped a bit enough for us to sail the Coastal Celebration. The problem with the Tsawassen-Swartz Bay route is docking a Spirit Class vessel in Tsawassen in high winds can be extremely challenging. But the Coastal Celebration is a double-ended vessel and has more manoeuvrability," said Marshall. Sailings have also been cancelled or delayed from Quadra to Cortes Island, Comox to Powell River, Powell River to Texada Island, Denman to Hornby Island, as well as between Haida Gwaii and Prince Rupert and Alliford and Skidegate. Flooding was also affecting travel on Highway 19 on northern Vancouver Island, and on highways 37 and 37A in northern B.C. Monday's weather warning follows a weekend of heavy weather that left many West Coast residents in the dark.  Crews have managed to restore power to thousands of Fraser Valley residents overnight after heavy winds knocked out power on Sunday. But about 500 customers in the Thompson/Shuswap region remained in the dark early Monday morning. Monday morning's commute was a wet affair for West Coast residents. At the height of Sunday's windstorm, about 10,000 customers were without power in Surrey, Langley, Mission, Abbotsford and Chilliwack, according to B.C. Hydro spokesman Greg Alexis. - CBC.