Power knocked out to thousands of customers as strong winds swept through B.C.

Thousands of people across British Columbia lost power overnight as strong winds swept across the province, generating gusts in excess of 100 kilometres an hour in some communities.

BC Hydro says in a statement that power was knocked out by the overnight wind storm for about 120,000 customers, although it was gradually being restored. 

The utility says that more than 18,000 were without electricity in Surrey, while Vancouver, Port Coquitlam, Burnaby, Maple Ridge and North Vancouver all saw more than 10,000 customers affected.

The outages come after Environment Canada issued a special weather statement for the Vancouver area that has since ended, warning of strong wind gusts.

The forecaster says maximum gusts overnight reached 102 km/h at both Point Atkinson in West Vancouver and in Hope, with Vancouver International Airport reporting wind speeds up to 76 kilometres.

BC Hydro says "all available crews and contractors have been mobilized" to restore power after winds brought trees and debris onto its infrastructure, mostly in the Lower Mainland.

Without lights, some schools across Metro Vancouver and the rest of B.C. were forced to cancel classes for the day, including all schools in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows as well as some in Langley, Abbotsford, Kootenay-Columbia and Kootenay Lake.

Strong winds remain in the forecast for the southern Interior, including the Thompson, Cariboo, Okanagan, Shuswap, Chilcotin, Similkameen and Kootenay regions.

Environment Canada says the wind storm comes on the heels of a cold front that moved through the area, bringing heavy rain and major flood warnings in the Fraser Valley. 

The agency says the same system carried heavy rainfall in parts of the Lower Mainland, with Coquitlam getting more than 70 millimetres, Rocky Point Park in Port Moody receiving almost 64 millimetres and Maple Ridge, Agassiz, Burnaby, and Chilliwack all reporting in excess of 50 millimetres of rain.

Environment Canada says the weather woes continue in the Interior, where a number of highways have been affected by heavy snowfall or winter storm conditions.

Winter storm warnings have been posted for Highway 1 from Sicamous to Golden and Highway 3 from Grand Forks to Creston where up to 30 centimetres of snow is expected.

The DriveBC information system says the Coquihalla Highway from Hope to Merritt has been closed due to a vehicle incident, while Highway 3 from Hope to Princeton remains closed because of damage from last week's rainstorms. 

Both stretches of highways are also under snowfall warnings, where another 15 centimetres of snow is expected on top of the 30 centimetres that has already fallen.

Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck