Thousands of Ontarians without power after windstorm

Thousands of customers remain without power in Ontario today after strong winds hit the southern and eastern parts of the province on Saturday.

Hydro One spokeswoman Bianca Teixeira says more than 7,000 customers are without power as of noon.

She says there are more than 200 active outages and utility crews are working to restore power to customers.

The outages stretch from just outside Ottawa to Pembroke, Parry Sound and Kingston and are scattered across the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area to parts of Niagara and westward to just outside Windsor.

Environment Canada issued wind warnings on Saturday for areas including Kingston, Prince Edward County, Niagara Region, Hamilton, London, Middlesex, Chatham-Kent and Windsor.

The agency said a top wind gust of 103 km/h was recorded at Hamilton Airport on Saturday with Windsor Airport reporting a peak wind gust of 98 km/h. Toronto saw top wind gusts of 82 km/h and 81 km/h respectively at the Island Airport and Pearson Airport.

Meanwhile, more than 24,000 Hydro-Quebec clients were without power Sunday morning after a spring storm caused heavy snow in some regions.

Hydro-Quebec spokesman Jonathan Cote says the weight of the snow sent tree branches bending and crashing down onto power lines.

More than 30,000 Quebecers were without power at one point.

Environment Canada says several parts of the province reported significant snowfall over the past 24 hours, including the Laurentians with 15 to 20 cm and the Lanaudiere with 20.

Some other parts of the province remained under a snowfall warning as of this morning, including the Quebec City and Charlevoix regions.