Flooding rain, damaging winds lash parts of BC

Monday, September 30, 2013, 7:32 AM -

A powerful Pacific storm has been bringing heavy rain and damaging winds to parts of BC since Friday.

BC Ferries cancelled sailings between Vancouver Island and the mainland Sunday night leaving hundreds of travelers scrambling to get home.

Passengers on the Holland America cruise ship MS Westerdam remained stuck in port in Vancouver when high winds and heavy seas forced the vessel to delay departure to Oregon, but a second cruise ship, the MS Statendam, was able to begin its journey to San Francisco overnight.

Hundreds of people wait for the last ferry to take them home...@weathernetwork pic.twitter.com/G5GdkadbDD

— Ian Jacobs (@Ianpjacobs) September 30, 2013

BC Ferries is offering an additional sailing from Swartz Bay to Tsawwassen at 8 am Monday and a return trip from Tsawwassen at 10 am to clear the backlog.

The stormy conditions also prompted the city of Victoria to call off Culture Days celebrations Sunday. 

Rain and wind warnings were issued Sunday afternoon as gusts over 100 km/h were recorded in some places.

Downed trees and power lines left thousands in the dark, with over 16,000 customers still without power early Monday morning.

Winds have eased to below warning criteria, but showers, heavy at times, will persist over the Fraser Valley and Howe Sound through the day, Environment Canada says. 

Between 60-90 mm of rain fell through the weekend, with an additional 60-80 mm possible in some areas by Tuesday. 

"We're looking at total rainfall amounts that could possibly exceed 200 mm by the time all is said and done," says Monica Vaswani, a meteorologist at The Weather Network. 

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