Major wind storm sweeps across southern Quebec

Winds gusting up to 90 km/h felled trees and damaged power lines across Montreal, the Eastern Townships and the Montérégie overnight Wednesday.

The storm started with rain falling Wednesday morning, bringing 25 mm of rain to the Montreal area.

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The high winds started Wednesday afternoon, peaking at about 9 p.m.

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The wind prompted Environment Canada to issue a wind warning for the region.

“It was a very strong system that brought a lot of rain to the Montreal area,” said Environment Canada meteorologist Simon Legault.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "It was a very strong system that brought a lot of rain to the Montreal area," said Environment Canada meteorologist Simon Legault.

“Ninety kilometre per hour winds can bring some damage to trees, so there were people without power (Thursday) morning because of it.”

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The strong winds brought down hundreds of trees all over the region, with some damaging power lines.

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About 400 Hydro Quebec power lines were affected by the storm, causing 27,000 people to lose power.

Most of the power outages caused damage in the Eastern Townships and Monteregie regions; about 1,000 people in the West Island also lost power.

Two hundred Hydro Quebec crews worked overnight Wednesday and into Thursday to restore the lines.

By Thursday afternoon, only 7,000 people still had no power.

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Pointe-Claire resident Donna-Marie Hallessey lost power, but got it back by Thursday morning.

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She lives on the edge of Lac St. Louis, and watched the storm by candlelight.

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“I am very lucky my property didn’t suffer any damage,” she said.

“Of all the time I have lived here, that was the biggest storm I have ever seen.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Of all the time I have lived here, that was the biggest storm I have ever seen."

Environment Canada said the wind also brought cold weather with it.

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About five centimetres of snow is expected in the Montreal region Friday night and Legault predicts the cold weather will stick around until the middle of next week.