A number of residents of North Vancouver’s Pemberton Heights neighbourhood say they’re out up to thousands of dollars after Monday’s windstorm caused a power surge that destroyed appliances and electronics.
Those affected by the power surge say they heard a loud boom around 1 p.m. on the day of the storm.
Ines Diaz, the owner and operator of the neighbourhood’s Corner Stone Bistro, said as soon as the bang went off, their power went down.
It wasn’t until it was restored the next day that she discovered many of her appliances and electronic devices were no longer working, including her Italian espresso machine, walk-in fridge, blenders and lights.
To add to the chaos, the day of the storm was her first day running the business.
“I have been paying around four or five grand now with the repairs and I still have to repair the ice machine,” she said.
“I don’t know how much it’s going to be in the end.”
Ines Diaz, the owner of Corner Stone Bistro in North Vancouver’s Pemberton Heights neighbourhood, had multiple appliances and electrical devices broken by an electrical issue during a windstorm on Monday, including the fan motor for her walk-in fridge. (Rafferty Baker/CBC)
Excess voltage
A power surge occurs when significantly more voltage than usual is pushed through electrical wires. If a home doesn’t have a power surge protector, that electricity can make its way to devices that are plugged into the electrical sockets.
In a statement, B.C. Hydro spokesperson Mora Scott said a transformer in the neighbourhood was damaged during the storm. She said they are still investigating what happened, but that it was likely the result of falling trees or branches.
Damage from a power surge can be significant, according to experts.
“If you have appliances plugged in, electronics plugged in, they can now start to see more power than what they’re capable of … so that can cause them to malfunction, to short circuit … in most cases, they do end up breaking,” electrician Arshmeet Bewli told CBC News.
Bewli, who owns an electrical company, said surges may become more common as climate change leads to more natural disasters that result in damage to electrical infrastructure.
Hot tubs and WiFi routers broken
Other neighbourhood residents said their furnaces, hot tubs, WiFi routers, TVs and dishwashers had been fried.
Resident Janike Tryggvensson invited CBC News into her home to show the damage. She said she keeps discovering new things that were broken by the surge — her lights, dimmers, refrigerator, thermostats, boiler and microwave, so far.
“The biggest for us, I think, is our refrigerators and hopefully our insurance will help with that.”
Janike Tryggvensson holds open the door of her fridge, just one of the appliances she says she will have to replace. (Rafferty Baker/CBC)
Tryggvensson said that the day after the storm, repair trucks lined her street as neighbours dealt with the damage in their homes.
“The wind was absolutely crazy.”
Protection from a surge
At the height of the storm, B.C. Hydro says 20,000 customers in North Vancouver were without power.
In her statement, Scott said “a handful” of customers from the area have reached out to them since the storm — which she said was the fourth most damaging in a decade.
“Our claims team is actively working with them,” Scott said.
Bewli said homeowners can protect appliances and devices in a home by hooking a surge protector up to their electrical panel.
“It’ll take on any excess power that’s coming in, which, you know, can be harmful for your electronics, for your appliances in the home. And then it’ll essentially break,” the electrician said.
“So if you go into your garage one day after you’ve installed the surge protector and you see, ‘Oh, hey, this thing’s fried,’ it’s because it did its job … and you would replace [it].”