Strong winds and heavy rain brought down power lines and created hazardous conditions across Montreal and the surrounding area overnight.

Hydro Quebec reported that more than 65,000 houses and businesses were in the dark as of 7 o'clock Wednesday morning, with more than half of the failures being in the Laurentians and the South Shore.

At its peak 81,000 were without power, but power was quickly restored to thousands.

Hydro Quebec spokesperson Louis-Olivier Batty said more power failures were possible later in the day.

"Maybe more today in some areas like Quebec City, the Lower St. Lawrence, we could could expect some power outages. And it will go up and down during the day because when we can put electricity back for some clients maybe at another place there will be be new outages," said Batty.

By 2 p.m. only 12,000 customers were still without electricity.

Full details about exactly which areas are affected, along with when Hydro Quebec expects to restore power, can be found here.

The strength of the wind was evident in Brossard when a tempo was ripped from its moorings on Lorange St.

Nobody was hurt, but firefighters were called to the scene to try and mitigate the damage.

Multiple collisions

At times heavy rain fell overnight, and the lack of visibility and poor conditions are being discussed as the possible cause of a car crash on 24th Ave. and Beaubien St. in the Rosemont-Petite Patrie borough.

The front of one car was smashed in that collision but nobody was seriously injured.

Weather is also being blamed for being at least partly responsible for multiple car crashes and collisions reported overnight on local highways.

The most notable was likely when an 18-wheeler and its cargo was pushed over by the wind in Ste. Julie.

The rain stopped around 5 a.m., but snow is in the forecast for eastern Quebec.

Flights, schools cancelled

The strong winds blasting across the island Wednesday morning are affecting flights at Trudeau airport.

Aeroports de Montreal says about a dozen flights, mostly to Toronto and New York City, were cancelled, while another two dozen faced delays.

The bad weather also closed multiple schools around Montreal.