MONTREAL -- High winds are downing power lines across southwestern Quebec as wind gusts are reaching up to 70 kilometres per hour.
More than 110,000 Hydro-Quebec clients are facing a power outage across the province, the vast majority of them in Montreal, the Laurentians and the Monteregie region.
In Montreal, more than 56,000 clients were left in the dark as of 2:45 p.m. on Thursday, with another 14,000 in the Laurentians, north of Montreal, and another 14,300 in the Monteregie region south of Montreal.
Hydro-Quebec said it has deployed teams to those areas to help restore electricity.
By 8:30 p.m., the number of households without power had dropped to 22,000, including almost 5,700 in Montreal.
Wind gusts died down in the evening after forecasts of winds of 20 kilometres per hour and gusts up to 40 km/h.
This is a developing story that will be updated.
