Wind warning issued for parts of B.C.’s South Coast, including sections of Metro Vancouver

Environment Canada has issued a wind warning for parts of B.C.’s South Coast, including southeastern sections of Metro Vancouver.

Starting Saturday and easing Sunday morning, strong winds reaching 70 kilometres per hour are possible across much of the area, including Surrey and Langley.

Exposed coastal areas around Juan de Fuca and the southern Strait of Georgia could see gusts of up to 90 km/h.

“High winds may toss loose objects or cause tree branches to break,” the weather service said.

“High winds may result in power outages and fallen tree branches.”

On Friday, BC Ferries cancelled several Vancouver Island sailings due to high winds, but no such warnings have been issued Saturday.

Environment Canada is also warning of snowfall on the Coquihalla Highway between Hope and Merritt and on a mountainous stretch of Highway 3 in the B.C. Interior.

On Saturday morning, BC Hydro said it was dealing with a number of outages in the Lower Mainland and on Vancouver Island, where trees have fallen down across wires, affecting thousands of customers.

The company says more than 3,000 customers were without power in southeast Vancouver.

BC Hydro says it also dealt with an outage caused by fallen trees in Esquimalt on Vancouver Island, with more than 1,800 customers without power.

Environment Canada warned of flooding from a fall storm system hitting the B.C. coast on Friday, with high winds and heavy rains cancelling ferry sailings and swelling waterways.

Police said Friday that eight people had to be rescued on northern Vancouver Island near Port Hardy after flash flooding disabled vehicles that became trapped by floodwaters and debris that blocked a road in both directions.

— With files from The Canadian Press.