35,000 hydro customers in Quebec and Ontario lose power after severe storms

About 35,000 hydro customers in Quebec and Ontario were without electricity on Friday afternoon after severe thunderstorms moved across Central Canada, following days of extreme heat. At the height of the outages, more than 214,000 customers in Ontario and nearly 140,000 in Quebec were affected, according to Environment Canada. Hydro One said crews were working to restore service to more than 17,000 customers in Ontario, while HydroQuébec had dispatched about 200 workers to help restore power to more than 18,000 clients. In Quebec, the Lanaudière region north of Montreal was among the hardest hit. Officials also reported downed trees, blocked roads and people trapped in elevators because of the outages. Weather officials said strong winds brought by the storms knocked down power lines, with gusts reaching 119 km/h near Lake SaintPierre and 96 km/h at MontréalTrudeau International Airport.