An unusually strong storm pummeled southern British Columbia overnight, bringing heavy rain and lightning strikes that caused power outages and travel interruptions for thousands.

Environment Canada issued severe thunderstorm warnings for Metro Vancouver, Whistler, the Southern Gulf Islands and part of Vancouver Island.

Vancouver International Airport says passengers were stranded between 9 p.m. and 3 a.m. because flights could not depart and arriving flights were unable to taxi to the gate because of lightning.

Cedar, B.C., resident Kenneth Ermter spent the night on the tarmac at Vancouver International Airport.

When his plane landed at around 10:30 p.m., the flight crew said the lightning meant groundcrews were not allowed outside, but the wait wouldn’t be too long.

“Six and a half hours later we’re still sitting on the tarmac waiting for a groundcrew to pull us in, and the storm was intense,” Ermter said in an interview.

He said passengers remained in good spirits, although it grew quite hot inside the cabin. Passengers walked around or watched movies, and Ermter was able to finish the second season of “Andor” during the wait.

But he said that when the lightning stopped at around 1:30 a.m., there were not enough groundcrew members to get them to their gate.

“We understand the factor of like, ‘We’ve got to keep everybody safe,’ but the lightning had stopped and then it was still another four hours that we sat out there and nothing happened, so it was pretty frustrating,” he said.

Ermter said he’s out $700 in hotel costs and plans to file a complaint with the airport and airline to recoup some of the expense.

“When lightning is in direct proximity of the airport, airfield operations must be paused for the safety of our employees and passengers,” the airport said in a statement Sunday.

It said additional staff were called in on Saturday and Sunday to support passengers.

The airport said impacts to flights continue as it works to recover its schedule after the storm.

BC Hydro’s outage map shows thousands of customers across the province were without power in the early morning hours due to lightning and downed trees.

Heavy rains also hit Central B.C. overnight, as Environment Canada warned the Cariboo and Chilcotin regions could see between 25 to 50 mm.

The BC wildfire service said Sunday that new wildfires ignited across the province Saturday after more than 7,000 lightning strikes.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 23

The Canadian Press