VICTORIA -- Thousands of Vancouver Island residents woke up without electricity Monday morning as strong winds downed BC Hydro lines.

By 8:30 a.m., approximately 7,000 BC Hydro customers were without power on the South Island, while more than 4,600 were without power on the North Island.

Wind gusts of up to 100 km/h were predicted for parts of the island and were forecasted to last late into the afternoon.

Environment Canada warned that tree branches were likely to break and loose items could be tossed in the gusts.

On the South Island, the bulk of the power outages are centred in the Sooke region, followed by Langford, Saanich, View Royal and the Highlands.

The largest outage in the area BC Hydro classifies as North Island was in Parksville, where crews were en route to fix a downed power line early Monday morning.

The latest on all outages across the province can be found on the BC Hydro outages website.