Trees crash into home

Another winter storm dealt a crushing blow to a Nanaimo couple Tuesday.

Bruce Cousens and wife Charlene Lee were home when two fir trees fell on their Hammond Bay Road property.

The trees damaged two vehicles, barreling through their kitchen and carport, and knocking down power lines.

Cousens said the damage will be covered by insurance.

“We stayed [Tuesday] night next door with our neighbour,” he said. “Nobody got hurt ... we’re pretty lucky.”

The cold front on top of windy conditions was bad news for thousands of other residents who found themselves without power.

Ted Olynyk, B.C. Hydro spokesman, said at the peak of Tuesday’s storm, between 10,000 and 12,000 customers were affected. At least 2,000 of those were without power overnight.

“No area of Nanaimo was spared,” he said, adding that while previous storms spared Nanaimo its hardest blows, this time around the Harbour City wasn’t so lucky.

Olynyk said hydro crews expected to have power restored to all affected areas by late Wednesday.

Anne McCarthy, a weather specialist with Environment Canada, said Nanaimo got really cold, really fast.

“The temperature contrast between the warm air over us and the cold air that came blasting in was really marked,” she said.

Nanaimo went from a high of 11 C to –3.2 C on Tuesday, with winds gusting as high as 70 km/h on the water.

“And now we’re going into a change where we’re looking at temperatures perhaps not even getting above zero,” said McCarthy.

reporter@nanaimobulletin.com

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