Power Outage Continues in Montréal

Atthe height of the storm, nearly 250,000 Hydro Quebec clients werewithout power in the Montreal region as 110 km/h winds damaged homes,toppled lampposts and ripped apart wooden structures.

Lightning, high winds and sheets of rain disrupted some flights atTrudeau airport on Tuesday, including a jet that aborted a landing.

Airport officials set up temporary lights on the runways to help guide planes in.

A severe thunderstorm warning was issued for Montreal and Laval.Environment Canada warned there was a possibility of tornadoes and hailup to 20 cm in diameter.

The warning was lifted by Tuesday afternoon.

Tennis ball-sized hail fell in some parts of the greater Montreal area.

The outages, mostly on the south shore of Montreal, forced the closure of about two dozen schools at two school boards Wednesday.

The storms rolled across southern Quebec on Tuesday afternoon, packing torrential rains and winds well over 100 kilometres per hour.

Trees and power lines came down and seven tractor trailers tipped over on the Champlain bridge, one of Canada's busiest spans linking Montreal and bedroom communities on the south shore.

The overturned trucks closed the span for hours and created huge traffic jams all over the Montreal area.

While the drivers in the toppled rigs were shaken, none was seriously injured. One person on the bridge suffered minor injuries.

David Robertson was on the 12th hole of the Meadowbrook Golf Course when the sky split open. "It came up so quickly it was unbelievable," he told CBC.

The wind tore branches off trees lining the course and Robertson said his golfing partners dove for cover in their carts.

Because he was on foot, he had no choice but to bury himself in a sand trap, "getting as low as I could as the storm went through," he said.

Office workers in downtown Montreal said they watched in horror as two window washers swung precariously on the side of the Place Montreal Trust building where they'd been working 35 storeys above ground.

The washers clambered to safety through a broken window, after spending nearly half an hour in the windstorm.

The storm blew east through Quebec City early Tuesday evening, damaging trees and knocking out power lines feeding about 25,000 homes.