Environment Canada has issued significant rainfall warnings for low-lying parts of southwestern British Columbia, just one day after heavy rain triggered more flood warnings and on top of last week's major inundations in the Fraser Valley.
The agency is forecasting up to 70 millimetres of rain in areas including Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley into Wednesday morning, and rainfall warnings are also in effect on Vancouver Island from Greater Victoria to Nanaimo.
The rain warnings are accompanied by forecasts of high winds starting this evening along Vancouver Island's west coast as well as for Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley, with some locations expecting gusts reaching 100 kilometres an hour.
BC Hydro says more than 7,000 customers across the province remain without power as of about 9 a.m. Tuesday morning, with many outages due to strong winds that brought down power lines on Monday.
The provincial DriveBC information system shows most highways in the southwest of the province now open, although Highway 3 from Hope to Princeton is closed, while travellers are warned of possibly hazardous driving conditions on both Highway 1 through the Fraser Canyon and the Coquihalla from Hope to Merritt.
Cleanup started Monday in the Fraser Valley as water that flowed across the border from the Nooksack River in Washington state began to recede, but the flood threat remains for several B.C. rivers and has expanded to Metro Vancouver's North Shore.
B.C. Emergency Management Minister Kelly Greene said Monday that heavy rain in the province's south coast created "increased flood and landslide risk" on the North Shore.
Greene said residents should avoid riverbanks and waterways as the water levels are high and the banks may not be stable.
Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ethan Cairns
