Powerful storm slams Ontario and Quebec

TORONTO — A powerful windstorm sweeping through southern Ontario and eastern Quebec on Wednesday knocked out power to tens of thousands of people and disrupted travel in the air and on the roads.

Environment Canada issued a wind warning for the region, saying residents should brace for hazardous road conditions. The warning was lifted at around 8 p.m. EDT Wednesday.

“Roads may be slippery at times locally this evening and overnight,” the weather agency said. “Damage to buildings, such as to roof shingles and windows, may occur.”

Ontario power utility Hydro One said more than 80,000 of its customers were without power Wednesday afternoon, but that number was down to about 44,000 by late Wednesday. Toronto Hydro said about 3,000 customers remained without power as midnight approached, down from a peak of about 21,000 earlier in the day.

West of the city, Alectra Utilities said about 15,000 customers were without power in Hamilton and Mississauga, Ont. There were also numerous reports of downed power lines.

Hydro-Québec was reporting more than 65,000 outages as of 11 p.m. Wednesday, primarily in the suburbs south of Montreal.

Toronto Hydro spokeswoman Tori Gass said blackouts scattered throughout the city were directly related to the wind, which had been gusting up to 90 kilometres per hour. She said extra crews had been on standby and were working to fix the downed lines and repair the outages.

Hydro One said the community of Minden in central Ontario was hit hard by the storm, with more than 12,000 outages reported Wednesday afternoon.