WEDNESDAY
$1.25
inc. H.S.T.
March 14, 2012
A division of
Vol. 27 No. 21
COMOX VALLEY RECORD Your community. Your newspaper. www.comoxvalleyrecord.com
ICE FINISH 2-2
Isfeld junior girls break even at hoops championship. ■ 17
WATER MUSIC A WINTER STORM battered the Comox Valley on Monday, pounding one boat against the beach near Beach Drive in Comox (above) and depositing a fishing boat on the Comox breakwater. PHOTOS BY ERIN HALUSCHAK / GALE HANSEN
We were powerless in powerful storm Gusts approached hurricane-force, most of Comox Valley darkened
The Sid Williams Theatre Society invites you to Vancouver Island Symphony’s Wave — a concert this Sunday that will satisfy the senses as Maestro Pierre Simard leads the musicians and technicians in a sensory experience that honours our Island community. “We are linking the symphony to this community where we depend so much on water,” explains Simard. “So, we are bookending this performance with two water-related pieces of music.”
Scott Stanfield, Erin Haluschak, Renée Andor Record Staff
Although it felt like a hurricane that walloped the Comox Valley, meteorologists from Environment Canada said Monday’s storm fell just shy of qualifying as one. Cindy Yu, a meteorologist for Environment Canada, said they recorded wind gusts of 106 km/h at the Comox weather station. “When it comes to hurricane winds, it must be a sustained strength. Winds may have come close to that, but it has to be sustained,” she explained. “Gusts are usually less than 20 seconds — maybe five or 10 seconds — and for a hurricane it has to be an average of several minutes.” She noted for winds to be classified as a Category One hurricane, sustained wind must reach
... Complete story on ■ 11
FINDER ■ Weather
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a minimum of 118 km/h. Monday’s storm was classified as a tropical storm. Yu said since the weather agency began recording wind speeds at the Comox weather station in 1953, there have been 27 incidents of wind reaching 106 km/h or higher, with the record set in March 1985, when wind reached 133 km/h. According to Ted Olynyk, BC Hydro community relations manager, 27,000 Comox Valley area customers lost power during the peak hours of the storm on Monday between 10 and 11 a.m. “The whole east coast was hit pretty hard,” said Olynyk. “But, certainly, it was the Courtenay/ Campbell River area that was hit the hardest on the Island. It was “definitely the big one this year, and it was one of the bigger ones ... see STORM ■ 3