High winds: more than 255,000 households in the dark in Quebec

 High winds: more than 255,000 households in the dark in Quebec

Strong winds accompanying falling temperatures in southern Quebec on Wednesday evening had knocked out power to some 255,000 households by around 11:30 p.m.

The evening began with some 20,000 homes in the dark in the Outaouais and western Laurentians, but the situation quickly deteriorated as the cold front and its 90 km/h gusts reached Greater Montreal.

Montérégie, with more than 60,000 customers, and Montreal, with nearly 40,000 customers without power, were the hardest-hit regions.

Blackouts were also common in the Northern Crown, and eastern regions such as Estrie and Mauricie began to experience power cuts of their own around 10 pm. The Centre-du-Québec and Capitale-Nationale regions, meanwhile, began to accumulate homes in the dark around 11 pm.

"It's been increasing with the winds and gusts that have been blowing harder and harder in the last hour," explained Hydro-Québec spokesman Maxence Huard-Lefebvre on LCN, adding that things should continue to deteriorate until around midnight, when the winds should start to die down around Montreal.

The state-owned company had seen the storm coming for three days and had prepared accordingly.

"Knowing what was coming tonight, we kept crews off today so they could have productive hours from the moment the weather started to get bad," explained spokesman

These crews will be able to start repairing breaks when it is safe to do so around mid-night, since working in gondolas with strong gusts is dangerous, noted Mr. Huard-Lefebvre.

By Wednesday night, more than 100 Hydro-Québec crews were expected to be on the ground to restore the power grid, rising to 470 crews by Thursday morning.