Just 40 left with no power

UPDATE: 5:50 a.m.

BC Hydro's website showed about 40 homes and businesses without power as of early Wednesday, a far cry from a peak of more than 100,000 customers at the height of outages caused by ice storms.

BC Hydro had said that while repair crews were making steady progress restoring power, damaged lines had caused further outages in some parts of Mission and Abbotsford.

Hydro also said it expected all customers to be reconnected Tuesday "barring any unforeseen circumstances or significant new damage found."

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UPDATE: 10 p.m.

BC Hydro is in the home stretch in its efforts to restore electricity to customers left in the dark because of intense ice storms that swept through the Fraser Valley last week.

The utility's website showed about 135 homes and businesses without power as of late Tuesday night, down from 650 earlier in the day, and down from a peak of more than 100,000 customers at the height of the outages.

BC Hydro says while repair crews have made steady progress restoring power, damaged lines had caused further outages in some parts of Mission and Abbotsford.

Hydro had said it expected all customers to be reconnected Tuesday "barring any unforeseen circumstances or significant new damage found."

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UPDATE: 12:15 p.m.

BC Hydro expects to have all power restored in the Fraser Valley by late Tuesday, five days after separate ice storms plunged thousands of customers into darkness.

A note on the utility's website says about 650 customers are still without electricity.

Hydro says customers without power are mainly in the Mission area of the Fraser Valley, and electricity should be restored across the entire region soon.

The utility says in addition to restoring power, crews continue to patrol lines in the hardest hit areas to repair damage and restore full reliability to the system.

Ice storms hammered Langley, Abbotsford, Mission and Chilliwack last Thursday and Friday, snapping tree branches, downing power lines and leaving some BC Hydro substations frozen solid, with sensitive equipment encased in ice.

After days of frigid temperatures, Environment Canada is forecasting temperatures as high as 7 C in the Fraser Valley by the end of the week.

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UPDATE: 9:45 a.m.

BC Hydro repair crews say fewer than 200 customers remained without power early Tuesday, five days after ice storms cut electricity to thousands of homes and businesses in British Columbia's Fraser Valley.

The BC Hydro website says 62 outages affecting 187 customers still remain, a dramatic improvement from the 3,000 customers who were without electricity at midday Monday.

Hydro says some new outages are still occurring and restoration efforts continue in the north Mission, northeast Langley and Abbotsford areas.

Crews were not expected to reach some of the trouble spots until later in the day, but the utility's website says the lights could be back on in other pockets within hours.

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ORIGINAL: 5:50 a.m.

BC Hydro repair crews appeared to be making solid headway in their efforts to restore electricity to homes and businesses entering a fifth day without power in the Fraser Valley.

About 500 customers remained without power by 1 a.m. Tuesday — down from about 3,000 at midday on Monday.

They have been without electricity since a storm last Thursday was followed by a second one on Friday, which left much of the Fraser Valley coated in thick layers of ice, which snapped tree branches and downed power lines.

Abbotsford, Mission and Chilliwack were among the hardest hit areas.

Some BC Hydro substations were also frozen solid, with sensitive equipment encased in ice.

BC Hydro said early Tuesday that power had been restored for about 2,600 customers in Langley and Mission in the previous 24 hours, but cautioned that some new outages were still occurring.

Environment Canada says there is a risk of more showers in the area, which could turn to freezing rain Tuesday night.