A “bomb cyclone” that brought wind gusts of up to 160 km/h to parts of the B.C. South Coast led to highway closures and power outages affecting thousands of people Tuesday night, and forced a group of school children on Vancouver Island to shelter in a school for hours.

At around 8 p.m. PT, the weather station on Sartine Island — just off the coast of northern Vancouver Island — recorded wind gusts of 159 km/h.

The bomb cyclone, which formed in the Pacific Ocean 400 kilometres west of Tofino, B.C., could see a pressure drop of 60 millibars over a 24-hour stretch at the centre of the storm — which forecasters say is highly unusual for B.C.

Mahdavi says U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration measurements are showing waves taller than 10 metres on the open ocean west of Vancouver Island, and waves are expected to grow considerably into Tuesday night.