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Vancouver assesses damage from latest storm
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CTV.ca News Staff
Date: Sat. Jan. 6 2007 11:31 PM ET
Vancouverites spent their Saturday in what is becoming a familiar ritual: Tallying up the damage from a powerful storm.
Stanley Park, the city's crown jewel, had more trees knocked down by Friday night's windstorm.
While about one dozen were removed from roadways, "there could be very many more that came down in the centre of the park, and we just haven't had an opportunity to determine the damage at this point," Ian Robertson, chair of the Vancouver Park Board, told CTV Vancouver.
About three weeks ago, the park lost up to 3,000 trees from a vicious windstorm (there are an estimated one million trees in the 400-hectare park). Some areas of the park looked like loggers had clear-cut them.
People who came to view the latest damage used words like "gobsmacked" and "disaster."
Hanging trees and branches made trails through the park dangerous, but many people could be seen ignoring warnings to stay out of trails through the woods.
Robertson said he understood why people might ignore those warnings.
"People have an emotional connection to Stanley Park, and people feel like a part of their city -- a part of them -- is wounded."
The additional damage wasn't restricted to Stanley Park.
Lynn Canyon recreational area in North Vancouver was closed to visitors because of a number of downed power lines.
An estimated 50,000 homes and businesses were left without power in the storm's wake.
"We've had snowstorms, we've had power outages, we've had rain -- bad winds," said Lynn Boden, listing the way the weather gods have punished Vancouverites this fall.
The Bednard family had electricity, but they also had a downed tree causing havoc for their North Vancouver home.
"You kind of think, 'these trees are pretty big; hopefully they don't crash through the whole house'," said Margaret Bednard.
While the home didn't suffer a direct hit, heir deck was badly damaged, and a trampoline lies under a fallen tree -- as does a car. Because they only use the car in the summertime, it isn't insured right now.
"We'll see whether it's worth fixing or not. It may just turn into scrap iron," said Gordon Bednard.
He was philosophical about the damage.
"In the grand scheme of things, we're going to be fine. It could have been worse, it could have been a lot more damage, somebody could have been hurt," he said.
For Saturday night, there are warnings of high winds hitting the Greater Victoria region and the west coast of Vancouver Island.
However, Mother Nature is giving the Lower Mainland the night off: There are no weather warnings for that area.
With a report from CTV Vancouver's St. John Alexander
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I applaud the budget, even though Health Care and education may stay unscathed. Sadly this cannot last and I worry to later this year where cuts will become enviable. If anything, this provides the Wildrose Alliance plenty of ammo when an election is called.

