Thousands of British Columbians woke up to darkness Wednesday after a windstorm swept across the south coast.

Around 7 a.m., nearly 20,000 BC Hydro customers were without power, according to the utility.

The bulk of the remaining outages, more than 14,000, were on the Sunshine Coast, with just over 4,000 on Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands and a few hundred in Metro Vancouver, including the Bowen Island, according to BC Hydro.

Environment Canada had warned Tuesday evening of a “vigorous” storm bringing wind gusts of up to 110 km/h to parts of the Sunshine Coast, Greater Victoria and Metro Vancouver.

The federal weather agency also issued rain warnings for parts of Metro Vancouver, saying up to 90 millimeters of precipitation was expected before tapering off Wednesday evening.

Rainfall warning remained in effect Wednesday for the North Shore, Coquitlam, Pitt Meadows and Howe Sound.

Another severe windstorm last week caused more than 230,000 power outages across the province and sparked a rare tornado on the Sunshine Coast that downed trees on roads and highways.

With file from Andrew Weichel of CTV News Vancouver