The wicked windstorm that cut power to tens of thousands of people across B.C.'s South Coast overnight also sent a large tree crashing down onto a hydro truck in Vancouver.

The vehicle was parked in the Kitsilano neighbourhood with the driver inside when the large chestnut tree toppled over and landed on the truck.

Fortunately, the driver, who was responding to another downed chestnut tree, wasn't injured, and he managed to crawl out to safety.

The first downed tree, which fell near Bayswater Street and 3rd Avenue, took out power lines and broke the window of Alain Letargua's home Tuesday night.

"When I heard the noise, I said what the hell is that?" Letargua said. "I thought it was a car accident."

It's unclear how much damage was done to the property, but the impact shook the neighbourhood, even spooking residents who live blocks away.

Those were just a couple of the startling incidents caused by the windstorm, which cut power to roughly 210,000 homes and businesses across the province overnight.

Winds gusted between 70 and 90 kilometres an hour at the height of the storm, downing many trees and damaging hydro lines and transformers.

In Burnaby, downed wires caused a brush fire that crews were fortunately able to put out before it could spread far.

The wind also caused violent, crashing waves on English Bay that destroyed nine boats. Some of the wreckage ended up washing up on the shore at Vanier Park.

BC Hydro crews worked hard to restore service through the night, but tens of thousands of people remained without electricity in the morning. The hardest hit areas were in Surrey and Salmon Arm.

Spokeswoman Mora Scott said the utility provider did everything it could to prepare, and was tracking the storm as it headed for the province.

"That really allowed us to ramp up our BC Hydro crews as well as contractor crews to make sure that we were ready as soon as the power went out," Scott said.  

For the latest on outages, visit the BC Hydro website

With files from CTV Vancouver's Nafeesa Karim