Kingston recovering from Wednesday’s windstorm

Wednesday may have started with spring showers, but by noon in Kingston, it was gale-force winds causing worries.

People were taking cover and posting plenty of photos and videos on social media of the damage around the city, including roofs being blown off, traffic lights down and fallen branches peppered around town.

There was even a sleet storm to tie the whole day together.

Across the province, the windstorm knocked out power to tens of thousands of people and disrupted travel in the air and on the roads.

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Provincial power utility Hydro One said more than 80,000 of its customers were without power Wednesday afternoon, but that number was down to about 60,000 Wednesday evening.

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

WATCH: Snowstorm and wind wallop causes damage across southern Ontario

1:47 Snowstorm and wind wallop causes damage across southern Ontario

In Belleville, a pedestrian was hit by a tree knocked down by the wind and was taken to hospital.

“It’s wind anarchy in our city right now, there are trees falling down everywhere,” Const. Adam Donaldson with Belleville, Ont. police said.

Meanwhile, provincial police said up to 50 vehicles were involved in a major collision on a busy highway north of Toronto.

WATCH: Ontario Provincial Police provided details about several crashes on different lanes of a section of Highway 400 near Barrie on Wednesday afternoon.

0:56 Police provide details on Highway 400 crash involving multiple vehicles

OPP Sgt. Kerry Schmidt said Wednesday on Twitter that there were no serious injuries in the crash on Highway 400 near Barrie, Ont., which he said appeared to be “weather-related.”

A sailboat that was left locked in the winter ice off of Wolfe Island broke free on Wednesday from its moorings due to rough waters and extreme winds.

View image in full screen

According to Judy Greenwood-Speers, a Wolfe Island resident who snapped a picture of the sailboat, the boat is currently loose and banging up against on old coal dock just east of the village an Wolfe Island.

-with files from the Canadian Press and Alexandra Mazur.