Large portions of the B.C. coast are waking up from a wicked blast of fall weather this morning.
Strong winds have been battering many portions of the province, cancelling ferries and knocking out power.
Still at this hour, hundreds of hydro customers are in the dark with the vast majority of outages on Vancouver island.
Metro Vancouver was largely spared from the worst of the storm, but at its peak — some spots were hit with winds as strong as 100-kilometres an hour.
BC Ferries was forced to cancel the majority of sailings between the island and mainland, stranding travelers at the terminals.
All wind and rain warnings have now been lifted with normal ferry service also set to resume.
Some infrastructure took a direct hit from the storm in Langley.
More than two metres of asphalt were washed away at 232nd Street and 29th Avenue late yesterday afternoon.
Crews were on the scene blocking off the hazardous gap in the road — and patching up the surface cracks.
The missing section of road remains blocked off — with sandbags around it.
Original story:
A major storm hit Vancouver Island and the South Coast late this afternoon, causing power outages, cancelled ferries, and plenty of havoc across the region.
The damaging wind and rain storm with gusts of up to 100 kilometres an hour began hitting areas just after 3 p.m., prompting a warning from Environment Canada.
The storm brought intense winds capable of damage through the Lower Mainland, Howe Sound and the Fraser Valley.
BC Ferries cancelled ferries throughout the afternoon, with the last major ferry leaving Tsawwassen at 6 p.m. They are offering refunds to anyone who had a reservation on a cancelled route, but encouraged people to phone in and change their sailing. They also added a number of additional sailings for Monday morning.
As the storm progressed through the evening, power outages affected over 25,000 customers , including much of Courtney, Ladner, Bowser and Central Saanich.
LINK: A full list of power outages.
The worst of the storm is expected to pass by tomorrow morning.
On Saturday, heavy rain pummeled Metro Vancouver, causing streets to flood and thousands of power outages.
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