2 dead in B.C. in aftermath of windstorm

A British Columbia couple died in their home over the weekend of what's suspected to be carbon monoxide poisoning after using a gas-powered generator for electricity.

Police were called toa suburban Burnaby house on Saturday and found the bodies ofa 66-year-old man and 65-year-old woman. A generator had been running inside the house with all the windows and doors closed.

They were among those without electricity after Friday's windstormbrought down power lines across the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island.

B.C. Hydroestimates about 10,000 customers are still without power from that storm, mostly on Vancouver's North Shore and in the Victoria area. At the height of the storm, 250,000 were without electricity.

Another 6,500 customers are without power Monday morning on northern Vancouver Island because of a transmission problem. The affected communities include Port Hardy, Port Alice and Port McNeill.

All schools in the region have been closed for the day.

Hydro urges patience

More than 800 B.C. Hydro employees have been working for 12 to 16 hours a day throughout the week to repair damage.

Spokeswoman Elisha Moreno asked people to be patient while crewswork.

"We are getting some reports of customers getting aggressive with our crews, because they want their power restored," Moreno said.

"Please be patient with us, we need our space to work and to work safely.We understand that you're frustrated right now. But we are trying the best we can to get the power restored quickly."

On Saturday,workers had to contend with about 10 centimetres of snow that fell overhigher elevations in the Vancouver area.

The utilitysaid larger outages hadpriority, while individual ones would have to wait until early in the week before power is restored. Many of thoseaffected are without heat and hot water.

The storm Friday was the third intenseblast to hit the area in a week. It brought rain and winds gusting to 158 km/h.

Stanley Parkclosed because of downed trees

One of the hardest hit areas was Vancouver's landmark Stanley Park, which has been closed to the public until at least the middle of the week.

Park officials said they wereworried that damaged trees could topple across paths.

Homeowners, insurance companies and others have beenadding up the costs related to the storms. Damage was expected to be in the millions, if not tens of millions of dollars.