Thousands without power after thunderstorms roll through Quebec

Thousands without power after thunderstorms roll through Quebec

Lanaudière, Laurentians most affected

Severe thunderstorms that swept across Quebec on Thursday evening resulted in tens of thousands of power outages.

At the peak of the outages, more than 130,000 Hydro-Québec customers were in the dark after violent storms rolled through much of the province.

The situation is gradually improving this morning, with roughly 50,000 without power.

The Lanaudière and Laurentians regions were the hardest hit. Together, they accounted for about 60 per cent of all households without power on Friday morning.

Montreal, Laval, and the Montérégie also experienced several thousand outages. Of those three regions, Laval was the most affected on Friday morning.

Strong winds gusting to more than 90 km/h caused damage, notably in L'Assomption, in the Lanaudière region, where a large event tent was blown into the air.

On its website, Hydro-Québec said "crews are making every effort to restore service safely and as quickly as possible."

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Hydro-Québec is asking the public not to touch or approach downed lines, which may still be live.

In southern Quebec, the temperature is expected to top 30 C again on Friday, feeling like more than 40 with the humidex.

According to Environment Canada, temperatures and humidity will begin to drop on Saturday morning.