Thousands still without power on B.C.'s South Coast after windstorm
Boil-water advisories in place for parts of Comox, Nanaimo
Thousands of BC Hydro customers are still waiting for power to be restored after a windstorm swept across the province's South Coast overnight.
A total of 100,000 customers lost power during the windstorm, and some might not have power restored until Friday afternoon, according to BC Hydro spokeswoman Simi Heer.
"We're thinking the latest would be early afternoon. Crews have made a lot of progress already. What they usually do in this situation is they start with making repairs that will bring largest number of customers back first. And then they'll move to individual outages."
By 11 a.m. PT, 13,000 customers were reported to still be without power as crews worked to repair the damage. Some of the hardest-hit areas were Langley, Surrey and Maple Ridge.
The windstorm also caused the cancellation of classes at three Vancouver schools, but by 11 a.m. PT only McKechnie Elementary School remained closed because of the outage.
Classes were also cancelled earlier at Norma Rose Point School, and U-Hill, but the school reopened after power was restored.
At the peak of the storm on Thursday night, wind gusts hit 70 km/h across the region, with the highest, 120 km/h, recorded on Saturna Island.
The windstorm is forecast to be the final one in a series of subtropical weather systems to hit the region over the past week, triggering evacuation orders and flood watches.
Flooding earlier in the week also led to boil-water advisories in Comox and Nanaimo, while landslides triggered water restrictions in Lions Bay.
The weather is forecast to be clear on Friday, giving residents a break from the rain over the weekend, before wet weather returns next week.