Nearly 235,000 Hydro Energy customers lost power when a powerful winter storm swept through the South Coast on Friday night into Saturday, causing trees to fall and prompting a precautionary closure of the Fraser Canyon Highway.

The Highway 1 north of Boston Bar was reopened around 9 p.m. on Saturday, according to DriveBC’s website. The stretch of road between Boothroyd and Lytton was closed overnight due to heavy rain as forecasted and “potential mud/debris flow within fire-affected areas.”

Canadian Environment Agency meteorologist Gary Dickinson described the storm as a “strong cold front,” but it falls within the range of what the South Coast typically sees at this time of year.

The highest rainfall accumulation was on the North Shore, where West Vancouver saw 52.6 mm overnight, according to Dickinson.

Also, in the 5 p.m. update, BC Hydro said on Saturday evening that its crews had restored power to 192,000 customers, nearly 80 percent of those affected by the outage. About 43,000 people remained without power, nearly half of them in Surrey, the area hardest hit by the storm.

The utility also said in an earlier update: “Trees and drought-affected branches fell on electrical equipment during the storm, causing extensive damage.” “BC Hydro has all hands on deck responding to the storm – all available BC Hydro crews and contractor crews are working hard to restore power as quickly and as safely as possible. Crews are busy replacing power lines, poles, and other equipment to restore the lights.”

A video from the Cedar Hills neighborhood in Surrey shows several trees that fell overnight, causing power lines to come down and land on parked vehicles in the neighborhood streets.

BC Hydro also reminded the public to assume that downed or damaged power lines are still live, to stay at least 10 meters away, and to call 911 when dealing with such situations.

The company said it expects to restore power to most homes by Saturday evening, but some customers will be without power overnight “due to the extent of the damage.”