Lights, heat return after southern B.C. windstorm

Thousands of residents on British Columbia's south coast and southern Interior spent the night without power after a fierce windstorm blew through the region Sunday.

BC Hydro says the outage affected an estimated 180,000 customers from Metro Vancouver to the Sunshine Coast, parts of Vancouver Island and southern Interior.

Contractors worked through the night and Hydro says the number of outages had been cut to fewer than 6,000 by dawn.

Here’s a #BCStorm update from our team in #Vancouver: Crews will continue to work throughout the day and we expect to have all remaining customers restored later today. We’ll provide updated estimates for power restoration as they become available at https://t.co/JY7BGL1bO4. pic.twitter.com/GSazmrtci1

— BC Hydro (@bchydro) March 29, 2021

Environment Canada says gusts of 90 kilometres per hour were recorded at Vancouver International Airport and numerous municipalities report trees toppled across roads, power lines, vehicles and a handful of homes, but no one was hurt.

BC Ferry sailings cancelled on Sunday had resumed Monday.

Traffic is also moving again on the Coquihalla Highway after the route was closed Sunday as the storm dumped as much as 25 centimetres of snow between Hope and Merritt.