Power is out for some Greater Victoria residents after strong winds and heavy rain hit Vancouver Island Monday (Nov. 4) morning.

BC Hydro said it could be some time before power is restored across Greater Victoria.

"At this time we're asking customers to prepare for the possibility of being without power overnight," according to an update from BC Hydro. "We'll continue to provide estimated restoration times for individual outages as they're available and provide more information on overnight outages later this evening."

Strong west winds of 70 km/h gusting to 90 swept across Greater Victoria causing power outages in Central Saanich, Esquimalt, Saanich, Highlands, Langford, Metchosin, North Saanich, Sooke, Victoria and View Royal.

BC Hydro crews and contractor crews are currently busy repairing damaged power lines, poles and other equipment to restore power in the affected areas.

As of noon close to 32,000 customers were without power with multiple reports of downed power lines. The number had dropped to just over 25,000 at 2:30 p.m.

In Highlands, a tree on hydro lines burned and sparked, closing the 5800 block of Munn Road. Highlands Fire Rescue posted video of the incident online, warning residents the road between Millstream Lake and the 5500 block of Munn would remain closed with no fixed estimated time of reopening. 

A downed power line is an emergency, BC Hydro reminded residents. Anyone who sees one should stay 10 metres back and call 911. 

As repair work continues, BC Hydro plans to provide updated estimates for power restoration as they become available at .

A tree on the road closed Highway 14 to Sooke in both directions east of Kangaroo Road earlier in the day. The road reopened around 1 p.m. 

BC Hyrdo says, due to the amount of damage, outages are being addressed in order of priority.

"Our first priority is outages involving downed lines and situations posing a risk to public safety. Next, crews will focus on restoring power to critical and municipal services, followed by large outages affecting the highest number of customers, and then to smaller outages," they said.