Boil-water advisories were lifted for much of the surrounding Vancouver area Friday, but remained in place for Vancouver, Burnaby and the North Shore.

Finding bottled water was difficult in and around Vancouver early Friday as stores had a hard time keeping up with the demands of 2 million residents looking for supplies.

Dr. Roland Guasparini, the chief medical health officer for the Fraser Health Authority, said that water in the areas still under the advisory is being monitored closely and "should there be any change we'll immediately let the public know."

For information about boil-water advisories, including how long to properly boil tap water for safe drinking, click here.

Even a cup of coffee was hard to come by throughout the Vancouver area Friday morning, as restaurants were having trouble keeping enough water boiled to brew the beverage.

The boil-water advisory had been issued on Thursday after powerful rain and wind storm on Wednesday stirred up reservoirs and overwhelmed the water treatment system.

Water coming out of taps was cloudy and brown and authorities were concerned the particulates in the water would make it harder to disinfect the water, increasing the risk of gastro-intestinal illness.

"So far our testing has not found any contamination of the water so this really is just precautionary, it's not the same situation as a Walkerton where they not only had contamination but they had people ill," Dr. Patricia Daly, medical officer of heath with the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, told Canada AM on Friday.

Residents have been told not to drink the water, wash vegetables with it, or even brush their teeth with it without boiling it first.

It is not uncommon for water in the area to gain some colour after a storm.

But a news release from the regional district said turbidity levels this week have reached "levels unprecedented in recent years."

CTV's medical specialist Dr. Rhonda Low told CTV News that people don't need to worry if they've already drunk some of the water, because the risk is low and the advisory is a precaution.

If you should start to experience symptoms of abdominal discomfort, bloating or watery diarrhea, see your family doctor, Low said. It can take as long as a week for such symptoms to appear.

A massive repair and cleanup effort is in full swing after violent winds and heavy rains battered the province Wednesday, downing power lines and toppling trees.

Outages extensive

Power was still out for 90,000 people Friday afternoon. At its peak, the storm left more than 210,000 British Columbians in the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island region without power.

About 500 repair crews working on power lines across the Lower Mainland, Fraser Valley and Vancouver Island managed to restore electricity to more than half that number by mid-afternoon Thursday.

Friday, B.C. Hydro crews continued to work from Vancouver Island to Chilliwack in an effort to restore electricity.

The most remote areas along the sunshine coast on northern Vancouver Island and the out-lying areas of the Fraser Valley may not regain power until late Friday or the weekend, officials said.

Most of the outages were in Surrey, Langley, Abbotsford and Chilliwack on the B.C. mainland, as well as Port Alberni, Campbell River, Parksville and Qualicum on Vancouver Island.

Evacuations

In one community near Horseshoe Bay, about 50 town homes and condominiums were evacuated because of crashing trees.

The storm dumped between 37 and 80 millimetres of rain on the Lower Mainland, bringing the rainfall total for November to 235 millimetres, and easily surpassing the monthly average of 181 millimetres of rain. The storm put the province on pace to break the 1983 record of 351 millimetres.

With files from The Canadian Press