B.C weather: Storm closes Highway 4 on Vancouver Island [Video]

An almost 40 kilometre stretch of Highway 4 on Vancouver Island was closed Tuesday evening due to the impacts of a storm that forecasted to batter the South Coast.

DriveBC announced the closure between Coombs and Port Alberni just before 6 p.m.

The Port Alberni RCMP, in a social media post, said the closure was due to “unsafe conditions” and that the detachment had already been dispatched to “multiple” crashes due to the treacherous mix of fierce gusts and downed trees.

Before the highway was closed, the Port Alberni Fire Department said it had been called for a report of a “tree that has fallen on a semi-truck.”

The closure comes as a “bomb cyclone” descends on the region, with forecasters predicting winds of up to 120 km/h.

BC Ferries pre-emptively cancelled all its Tuesday evening sailings between the Mainland and Vancouver Island.