Despite the extensive tree pruning measures BC Hydro undertook this past summer, Bowen Island has seen an increase in power outages compared to 2012.
The municipality has fallen victim to seven tree-related outages since the end of July compared to four during the same period last year, BC Hydro has confirmed.
The latest incident took place Oct. 5 along Mount Gardner Road, where dozens of people living near Jones Road awoke to find a tangled web of power lines, branches and the remains of a downed utility pole blocking their passage to the rest of the island.
"There was no way we could actually dare to go near it," said Lisa Howland, who lives nearby the wall of debris that blanketed Mount Gardner Road for about six hours.
She added her son found a 10-inch bolt that appeared to have come off one BC Hydro pole and flung across the road.
"I think what the problem is, is that what (trees) they've taken down now has opened up for other ones," Howland said.
But BC Hydro community relations manager Jerry Muir said the utilities provider has no reason to believe this is the case.
he said.
"The increase (in outages) is really due to a number of strong and unseasonal wind events over the past couple of weeks," he said.
"The veg management is meant to prevent that type of occurrence. Even with the preventative measures around tree pruning, 25 per cent of our outages across the province are related to fallen trees or branches and none of that, that we are aware of, is a product of the veg management that occurred."
