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Power outages across Lower Mainland after blue and green explosion lights up North Vancouver

by Travis Lupick on November 17th, 2015 at 6:12 PM
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      The North Shore lit up in blue and green flashes of light this evening (November 17), prompting a flood of questions on social media about what exactly happened.

      According to a message BC Hydro posted on Twitter, the explosion was a “substation outage”.

      Several videos posted on Twitter captured the event in North Vancouver. Unconfirmed reports say similar incidents occurred in other areas of the Lower Mainland, including along Gore Street and in Coquitlam at Austin and Mundy.

      BC Hydro confirmed that tens of thousands of people across Metro Vancouver were without power at the time of writing.

      A map of outages shows people are in the dark in many areas of North Vancouver and in just about every municipality in the Lower Mainland except for the cites of Vancouver and Richmond.

      Lights are also out across the Lions Gate Bridge, according to a message posted online by the Vancouver park board.

      Environment Canada has issued a weather warning for wind, cautioning Metro Vancouver residents to expect gusts at 70 to 100 kilometres per hour.

      "Damage to buildings, such as to roof shingles and windows, may occur," it reads. "Be prepared to adjust your driving with changing road conditions due to high winds."

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