Heavy rains and lightning hit British Columbia's Lower Mainland Tuesday, leaving parts of Surrey under a foot of water and causing structural damage to a home in Coquitlam.

Traffic flows were disrupted by the storm, which also left 2,000 British Columbia Hydro & Power Authority customers without power for much of Tuesday. Power outages were reported in Burnaby, Delta, Coquitlam and Port Coquitlam.

Heavy rain flooded parts of British Columbia's Lower Mainland on Tuesday.
(CBC)

The lightning storm was so severe that fire crews were called to a home in Coquitlam's Highland Drive, where lightning struck a tree in the back yard.

Two elderly people who lived in the home were unhurt, but they were asked to leave their house because it sustained structural damage.

Meanwhile, in Surrey, parts of 152nd Street, including the 5300 block, were under as much as a foot of water Tuesday evening.

The heavy rainfall also disrupted classes at British Columbia Institute of Technology after a creek overflowed, flooding four buildings on the school's Burnaby campus.

Allison Markin, a spokeswoman for BCIT, said the flood caused some evening business classes to be cancelled. However, she said school operations should be back to normal by the time students arrive Wednesday.