Crews working to restore power to parts of B.C.'s South Coast hammered by high winds
Roughly 121,000 customers lost hydro during a wind storm Wednesday
Hydro crews continue to restore electricity to thousands of customers across British Columbia's south coast after a fierce windstorm.
Environment Canada says wind gusts of around 90 kilometres per hour were recorded off Victoria at the height of Wednesday's storm.
B.C. Hydro reported about 121,000 customers lost power Wednesday and crews worked through the night, despite toppled trees that made access difficult in many areas.
The Crown utility says just under 14,000 customers across southern Vancouver Island and Gulf Islands were still in the dark early Thursday and roughly 4,000 were affected from North Cowichan to Nanaimo and Qualicum Beach.
When a storm causes significant damage and multiple outages in a region, we prioritize what our crews tackle first. Watch this video to learn how we get the lights back on. Find the latest outage updates here: <a href="https://t.co/Dx1Npfig1V">https://t.co/Dx1Npfig1V</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BCStorm?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BCStorm</a> <a href="https://t.co/dYKcNLajPT">pic.twitter.com/dYKcNLajPT</a>
—@bchydroThe weather office dropped wind and rain warnings for southern B.C., but a special weather statement remained in place for the Hope to Merritt section of the Coquihalla Highway.
On top of snow that fell earlier this week, forecasters were calling for a further five centimetres through the morning before easing to flurries.