About 10,000 B.C. Hydro customers in the Victoria area were still without power late Wednesday in the wake of Sunday's big snowstorm and as another storm moved through southwestern B.C.

B.C. Hydro crews have been working around the clock to restore power but say some people in and around Victoria may not have it back until Saturday.
(CBC)

At one point, there had been about 90,000 homes and businesses in the dark. By late Tuesday, that had improved to about 22,000.

On Wednesday, Hydro spokeswoman Elisha Moreno said that getting access to outages in the Victoria area was the biggest challenge.

"A lot of side roads have not been plowed, so we are actually bringing some plows over ourselves from the Mainland to deal with the plowing issues over in Victoria," she said.

Hydro has also sent 30 extra repair crews from the Lower Mainland to help and warns some rural residents may not get their lights back on until Saturday. 

The hardest-hit areas include parts of the Highlands, Metchosin and Shawnigan Lake.

New snowstorm hits area

A new storm moved in late Wednesday morning, bringing high winds and more snow to Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands and the Lower Mainland. But Moreno said the new snow has not caused any outages.

Environment Canada forecasts up to 10 or 15 centimetres of snow, along with winds on eastern Vancouver Island and bitter cold in the Fraser Valley.

On the Lower Mainland, commuters were warned it could take them longer to get home on Wednesday, with longer-than-usual waits for buses and the SkyTrain.

Rising temperatures are expected to turn the snow to rain by Thursday.

Abbotsford hires extra plows

Dozens of vehicles have gone off Highway 1 in the Abbotsford area in the past few days.
(CBC)

The Fraser Valley city of Abbotsford, which was hard hit by Sunday's storm, has prepared for the new dump of snow.

Mayor George Ferguson said the city has hired 10 private contractors to help with enormous snowdrifts that have been building up and then blowing across much of the city and Highway 1.

He said he's got a drift in his driveway that's two metres deep and about eight metres long.

"And we have those kind of drifts in odd spots on different roads on Sumas Prairie. So that's why we hire the contractors with the big front-end loaders to break through them and move the snow around."

A travel advisory remains in effect for Highway 1 through Abbotsford, where crews sprayed magnesium chloride on an extremely slippery section and managed to melt some of the ice.

7 poisoned by carbon monoxide

Health officials in Vancouver said there have already been two incidents of carbon monoxide poisoning related to the cold weather and power outages.

A family of five was hospitalized after inhaling fumes from a gas-powered generator they were using inside their home. Another couple required treatment after using their charcoal barbecue indoors to keep warm.

Vancouver Coastal Health Authority spokeswoman Viviana Zanocco said the condition of  three of the victims was so serious they required treatment in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber.