Brian, that is absolutely horrible about the devastation to your colonies. How many did you have/lose? We live about 45 km north of Vancouver and man did we feel the effects of this hideous storm that hit you as well. Our wind was awful too. It was supposed to begin on Monday night around midnight, but as of Tuesday night still had not surfaced. Wednesday the winds and rain did come in full force. Very, very strong. On Wednesday about 5:00 PM we lost power, as did a myriad of people in the Lower Mainland. The power was not restored until about 4:00 Thursday (yesterday). It was very dark and cold. Fortunately we did not have freezing temperatures and the house temperature did not dip below 14 degrees, celsius. We are always prepared for the power outages, have oil lamps, kerosene burner stove and other things. The bees faired out OK, it is still raining hard, but nothing blew over or was damaged. I was grateful that I had gone out and put the heavy rocks on the lids though. When I hear of decimated hives, it is a very sad thing, I know the bees are just insects, but picturing what they must have gone through is heart rendering. Good luck is trying to see if you can piece anything back together at all. Please let us all know what happened in the end. Cindi