Cold, Arctic outflow winds blew down trees, caused sporadic power outages and even forced the cancellation of youth soccer games in Squamish late last week and early this week.
Trees fell on homes, vehicles and other structures in Brackendale, the Amblepath development and elsewhere in Squamish as a result of winds that blew hard from Friday into Saturday (Nov. 19 and 20) and again on Monday (Nov. 22).
Kathryn Sorenson, whose family lives on Kingswood Road in Brackendale, said a large cottonwood tree fell on a backyard workshop structure on Monday at around 7:30 p.m.
"We have the insurance adjusters here now," Sorenson said on Wednesday (Nov. 24), estimating the tree's height at 80 feet (24 metres).
Another large tree fell on a condominium building in Amblepath, coming to rest against an eavestrough.
Meanwhile, the Squamish Youth Soccer Association was forced to cancel all games at the Brennan Park fields on Saturday, the final day of the fall schedule, after the wind blew down three of the goals in Friday night's windstorm. With the wind still blowing hard early Saturday, officials decided against running the risk of a goal coming down with youngsters on the fields.
On Monday afternoon, Brennan Park Recreation Centre was closed down as a result of a power outage. The power came back on on Tuesday (Nov. 23) at 7 a.m. and the ice arena re-opened at around 10 a.m., but the pool didn't re-open until Tuesday at 3 p.m., said Camilla Say, District of Squamish facilities manager.
The power surge burned out a few switches and other electrical parts, and some of those had to be replaced before the pool could re-open, Say said.
"Our amazing maintenance and janitorial staff worked through the night and were able to power up all the motors and systems," she said. "The pool was cool because the heat had gone off, and they had to recharge all the filters and rebalance the chemicals in the pool to make it safe and warm."
Also on Monday, a massive tree fell onto a power line and several cars on Wilson Crescent in Dentville, leaving Tracy Dorosh and her family, who lives metres away on McNamee Street, without power for more than eight hours.
"We lost power at 5 p.m. and it came back just after 3:30 a.m," she said.
"All night you could hear the wind and we live in an older building so you could feel it creaking and hear the chainsaws and of course it was pitch black but you could see flashing lights from the working vehicles - it felt like we were in a war zone.
She said it was freezing cold but her two kids, ages five and seven, thought the whole experience was "kind of cool."
"We watched a movie on the laptop until the battery ran out and then closed ourselves in the room for body heat warmth and that's all we did - we just stayed in there with candles, blew them out at bedtime and stayed in the dark under as many blankets as we could find."
Dorosh said the house was actually moving a little bit.
"It was insane. I've lived here [in Squamish] since I was three and I've never seen winds like that."
