The power remained out for 16,000 B.C. Hydro customers on Tuesday morning following Monday's windstorm, including 5,000 on Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands.
A statement from the utility said crews had restored power to 95 per cent of the 290,000 customers impacted by Monday’s windstorm by 6 a.m.
The winds caused “significant damage” across Vancouver Island, the Sunshine Coast and the Lower Mainland, B.C. Hydro said, and "crews have been working around-the-clock to restore power, replacing dozens of spans of power line as well power poles and other electrical equipment."
B.C. Hydro expects to have the majority of the remaining customers restored today, but said some areas with significant damage might take longer.
A multi-year drought has weakened vegetation, making trees and branches more likely to fall in a windstorm, it said.
Surrey, Victoria and Sechelt were among the areas hardest hit by the outages caused by winds that triggered warnings from Environment Canada about gusts reaching speeds of up to 100 kilometres an hour in Metro Vancouver.
Fallen trees and downed power lines led to detours on several B.C. Transit routes in Greater Victoria on Monday afternoon.
A five-kilometre stretch of Highway 14 was closed in both directions between Langford and Metchosin in the morning due to a tree across the road. The roadway reopened about noon.
Most of Environment Canada’s weather warnings were dropped late Monday afternoon, but strong winds and heavy rain remained in the forecast for all of Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley through to Hope.
Winter storm warnings and bulletins were also in effect for several stretches of highway in southern B.C., where the weather office said strong winds and heavy snow could create “near-zero visibilities and treacherous driving conditions.”
The warnings covered the Coquihalla Highway from Hope to Merritt and Highway 3 from the Paulson summit area to the Kootenay Pass.
The snow was expected to taper off overnight, with accumulations ranging from about 20 centimetres at the Coquihalla summit to about 40 centimetres along the Kootenay Pass by Tuesday, the warning bulletin said.
Lower-level special weather statements were in effect Monday for the Coquihalla Highway between Merritt and Kamloops, as well as Highway 3 from Hope to Princeton and the Okanagan Connector from Merritt to Kelowna, where the forecast called for snowfall ranging from five to 10 centimetres.
