Thousands still without power on Vancouver Island after heavy winds overnight

Thousands of people on Vancouver Islandare dealing with power outagesafterhigh winds battered the region overnight.

BC Hydro said there arealmost 4,000 peoplein the dark Thursday morning, with the vast majority in Nanaimo.

Late Wednesday,as many as 9,000 customers across the South Coast were without power.

• BC Hydro outages list

BC Hydro said standard crews and extra relief crewswere out in full force to try to restore service.

"It's all hands on deck right now," spokesperson Susie Riedersaid Wednesday.

In some cases, she said, branches downed power lines and led to the outages.

Environment Canada had wind warnings in effect Wednesday for much of the South Coast and Vancouver Island, forecasting potentially damaging winds of upto 90 km/h.

The strongest winds were expected to have subsided by Thursday morning.