Thousands without power, over 20 ferry sailings cancelled as storm rolls through B.C. South Coast

Thousands are without power and ferry service between the mainland and Vancouver Island was cancelled on Monday as a strong windstorm rolls across British Columbia's South Coast.

More than 11,000 homes are without power as a result of the storm hitting Sunday night, according to B.C. Hydro. More than 7,000 of those families are on Vancouver Island, while 4,000 are spread across the Sunshine Coast.

"We are seeing a lot of distribution outages on the system right now, and that means our crews can be doing anything from taking branches off of lines, restringing wire or conducting a full-on power pole replacement, depending on the severity of the damage," said spokesperson Kevin Aquino.

Outages have been minimal on the Lower Mainland. Aquino said the heavy rain and strong winds didn't materialize as expected in that area, instead petering out after hitting the Sunshine Coast.

Meanwhile, B.C. Ferries has cancelled nearly two dozen sailings due to wind warnings in effect across the southwest corner of the province.

The cancellations mean there is effectively no ferry service between Metro Vancouver and Vancouver Island on Monday morning. 

Cancellations began 5:15 a.m. on the Tsawwassen and Swartz Bay routes and at 6:15 a.m. on the Horseshoe Bay and Duke Point routes, as well as for the Comox and Powell River sailings.

Sailings to the Gulf Islands are also suspended through the early afternoon.

"We don't take the decision to cancel sailings lightly, as we know customers rely on us to get to their destinations. We will resume service as soon as it is safe to do so," the corporation wrote in a statement, adding customers with bookings will be fully refunded. 

Environment Canada has renewed wind warnings for coastal Vancouver Island, Greater Victoria, the Sunshine Coast, the Gulf Islands and Metro Vancouver. 

Strong southeasterly winds gusting up to 100 km/h on exposed areas of the island "will persist until early this evening," according to the agency.

Special weather statements are also in effect for central Vancouver Island and Howe Sound.

CBC meteorologist Johanna Wagstaffe said the winds are expected to subside by Monday evening, but people should be prepared for more power outages.

She said the windstorm is different than previous ones because of its length: weather like this usually lasts a few hours, rather than stretching across two days.