The Lower Mainland's great winter melt-off began on Saturday after almost two weeks of heavy snow and a white Christmas.

Apart from dozens of fender benders, the melting snow is causing a headache in the form of water going where it shouldn't.

In North Vancouver, shovelling out buried cars and digging paths through several feet of snow were the order of the day.

"I would love to be in Hawaii now," said one woman.

Another watched with trepidation as her father shovelled snow off the roof of a house.

Murray Wightman of the City of Vancouver said they were trying to keep drains clear for the run-off water, but some storm sewers were clogged, turning streets into small lakes.

"With the amount of rain that they're calling for, [another] 40 to 50 millimetres, and possibly some flurries, we're trying to get as much done as we can so the next two days are going to be very important to us," he said.

And Wightman asked for some help from the public, given that more melt-off from the record snow is expected, even as it rains.

"If you've got a catch basin outside your house I'd really appreciate you going out and just shovelling around it... just around the catch basin, make sure the grates are clear of snow."

Snow is also becoming heavier where it sits, thanks to the rain that fell on Saturday.

One caused a tree in Maple Ridge to fall onto a home.

"There was a lot of snow on the trees and all the snow was stuck in there and it fell down," said Samuel Barrios.

His father Jose said he would be kept busy clearing up the mess.

The rain was also causing power lines to fall down because it was being soaked up by snow already stuck to the lines. Around 9,000 homes in the Lower Mainland were without power on Saturday afternoon.

Janet Cook, who is waiting for the power to come back on at her home in Maple Ridge, said she hasn't seen snow like this since 1964.

"We have lots of candles, and then my husband works for the railway so we have his CP rail lamp, so we had that going," she said.

"You can't get through to Hydro. At all. And I understand because their lines are just inundated with phone calls."

Susan Daynard of B.C. Hydro asked for patience.

"Most of the Hydro crews did not get Christmas -- they've been working for more than a week, some of them close to two weeks," she said.

We're looking at at least another day or two of outages, just sporadic again. It'll just depend on how quickly it melts. There is nothing we can do. Unfortunately, it's just Mother Nature."

With reports from CTV British Columbia's Stephen Smart and Maria Weisgarber.