More than 150,000 homes were left without power Monday as strong winds battered coastal areas of British Columbia and much of the central part of the province.

Monday afternoon, the List of BC Hydro outages showed that about 120,000 of those customers were in the Lower Mainland, while more than 32,000 customers on Vancouver Island were without power. Hundreds more were facing outages in the Okanagan and Kootenay regions.

The utility warns that customers on southern Vancouver Islandas well as Gambier, Keats, Texada and Bowen Islands, could find themselves without power overnight.

In a notice Posted on its website Monday afternoon, BC Hydro says it will address outages in order of priority.

“Our first priority is outages involving downed lines and situations that pose a risk to public safety,” he said. “Next, crews will focus on restoring power to critical and municipal services, followed by major outages affecting the greatest number of customers, and then more minor outages.”

Wind warnings have been issued for much of the province.

“Loose objects can be thrown by the wind and cause injury or damage. High winds can cause power outages and fallen tree branches,” Environment Canada says in its warnings.

“Powerful storm system”

The national government’s weather agency said a “powerful storm system” hit the south coast after midnight on Monday, with peak rainfall intensities expected on Monday morning.

Between 40 and 70 millimeters of rain were expected on the north coast of Metro Vancouver, according to the forecaster, and strong winds are expected until the afternoon.

A special weather statement was also issued for Vancouver Island, where Environment Canada said 70 to 100 millimeters of rain could fall on the mountains of western Vancouver Island.

“I’m more concerned about the winds,” said Johnson Zhong, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, noting that gusts could reach up to 80 km/h in the Victoria region on Monday.

BC Ferries says several crossings have been delayed due to weather conditions.

In the mountain passes of southern British Columbia, the forecaster issued special weather statements warning of blowing snow on stretches like the Coquihalla Highway (Highway 5) from Hope to Merritt and Highway 3 from Paulson Summit to Kootenay Pass .

“Strong southerly winds ahead of the front and snow upstream will arrive Monday,” the statement said.

“Snow accumulations on the highest peaks like Coquihalla and Kootenay Pass could exceed 20 cm on Monday,” it added.

Zhong said with snow and strong winds, blowing snow could cause low visibility for drivers Monday afternoon.

Storm warnings come just over two weeks later an atmospheric river brought significant rain to the south coast, leading to the death of at least four people after mudslides and floods.

Zhong said the rainfall totals for Monday’s storm would not come close to those that occurred during the atmospheric river event, but there could still be some localized flooding or mudslides in the mountains.

“It’s more of a windstorm,” he said. “So…what could be (are) power outages, broken tree branches.”