City crews battled surging waters and localized flooding in the Comox Valley after a massive storm swept over Vancouver Island overnight.

High winds and 70 millimetres of rain walloped the region overnight, and some residents woke up to flooded driveways and walkways.

Meanwhile, Courtenay’s Lewis Park was looking more like Lewis Lake after the storm.

lewis park

The volume of rain combined with a high tide and gusting winds led to the flooding on Comox Road, which Courtenay’s CAO David Allen called “unusual.”

“There was some water in the slough area, but the public works folks managed to get in there and sandbag it so we were all good,” he said.

Crews deployed the city’s aqua dam, an inflatable flood prevention system, along the slough and the Old Island Highway.

“It didn’t get a good test but it certainly provided the comfort that if [the water] did come up any further we would be able to hold it back,” Allen said.

Meanwhile, in the Cowichan Valley, a mudslide and flooding shut down access to Cowichan Bay Road between the Trans-Canada Highway and Tzouhalem Road.

One driver ignored barricades and got his vehicle stuck in high floodwaters on the road, according to the Cowichan Valley Citizen.

A photo shows the man standing on the roof of his vehicle, with water nearly up to the windows.

Fire crews from Cowichan Bay and North Cowichan/South End launched a Zodiac boat to pull him to safety.

The storm wasn't felt as much in Greater Victoria but still packed a punch.

The strong wind toppled a cherry tree in Esquimalt, causing it to come down right on top of a car.

tree down

At the height of the storm, 118,000 BC Hydro customers across B.C.’s South Coast were left without power.

 

A viewer sent Astrid Braunschmidt this wet and wild dashcam footage of driving through Goose Spit this morning.Read more about last night's storm: http://ctv.news/EugtyXH

Posted by CTV Vancouver Island on Thursday, March 10, 2016