High winds leave thousands without electricity in Quebec, Ontario

TORONTO – Strong winds have cut electricity to thousands of customers in Ontario and Quebec.
Most of the outages on Monday evening were in Quebec, where Hydro-Quebec said more than 272,000 customers were left in the dark.
The bulk of them, about 118,000, were in the regions north and northwest of Montreal and a further 88,000 were in the Quebec City area.
Strong winds were also blamed for about 36,000 outages in Ontario, from the Sudbury and Kapuskasing areas in the north through Tweed in the province’s east.
Hydro One said trees falling on power lines accounted for the bulk of the outages.
By late Monday, a severe thunderstorm watch remained in effect for most of southern and southeastern Quebec from Montreal through Quebec City.
Environment Canada said conditions were favourable for the development of dangerous thunderstorms that might be capable of producing damaging wind gusts.