Power crews worked through to try to restore electricity to thousands of customers in Montreal and on the South Shore. 

Strong winds knocked over trees, downing power lines in areas on and off the island as the thunderstorm made its way over Southern Quebec around 3 p.m. Wednesday.

In Laval, a Hydro transformer was captured on film when it exploded during the storm. 

The wind gusts reached speeds of up to 100 km/h, according to data taken at Trudeau Airport. 

The storm did noteable damage in St. Leonard where, according to a witness, the roof of a low-rise apartment building on Valdombre St. was torn off. However, no one was injured. 

Storm damages home and leaves thousands without po

Firefighters said that they received more than triple the number of calls they'd get on an average night.

Urgences-Sante, on their end, responded to a handful of calls from people with minor injuries caused by falling branches, including a cyclist who was struck in Senneville, and a construction worker hit by an airborne 2 x 4 while working on the 6th floor of a building.

Another woman contacted emergency services after branches fell on her car - trapping her inside. She was pulled from the vehicle unscathed.

At the storm's peak, 135,000 customers were without power in the Greater Montreal area. 

On Mountain Sights Avenue in Cote-des-Neiges/Notre-Dame-de-Grace, residents said the aftermath was "out of a disaster movie," and a "scene of complete chaos."

"I saw all the pieces of the roof flying over my car, and then I heard a 'BOOM' like I've never heard, and my car shook," explained Maggie Shuter, who owns an animal-rescue shelter.

"It was like watching things in slow motion," she said. "Cars all around me, all the windows were blasting - unbelievable. Just thinking about it gives me shivers."

A garage owner, Richard Moumdjain - whose car was crushed by debris from the roof of the building - laid out what he saw in the eye of the storm.

"Rocks flying everywhere - we can't reallly assess the damage until we actually wash the cars and see exactly [but] some cars have like $5,000 worth of damage just from small rocks falling on top of cars."

In Saint-Julien, near Thetford-Mines, a house was literally razed to the ground by the wind force. 

Trees snapped and caused extensive damage to one home on 3e Rang Ouest. Wind gusts in the area also uprooted hundreds of trees, and even moved a mobile home 20 to 30 metres. 

Residents in Chaudiere-Appalaches murmured about the possibility of a tornado, based on the way the winds were pushing debris around.

On Thursday morning, Environment Canada analysts determined that Saint-Julien was, in fact, hit by a "category EF2" tornado on Wednesday afternoon.

Wind speed between 180 and 220 km were recorded in the town with a population of 394. 

Alexandre Parent, meteorologist with Environment Canada, estimates that only five to 10 per cent of Saint-Julien's trees survived. 

Parent said that only five or six tornadoes are reported annually throughout the province of Quebec. 

Watch video captured from the scene below: 

(With files from the Canadian Press)