A Blackout In Caracas
man uses light from his phone to find his car during a blackout in Caracas June 27, 2014. A blackout cut power to much of Venezuela on Friday, snarling traffic in the capital Caracas and other major cities as authorities scrambled to restore electricity after the outage, which twice interrupted a presidential broadcast. Reuters/Carlos Garcia Rawlins

Thousands of residents have lost their power supply after strong winds downed a number of trees across much of southern Ontario Monday night. On Monday, Environment Canada issued a wind warning for Toronto residents as well as the surrounding region to brace for "very strong southwesterly winds" that could reach near 100 km/h. It added the winds could last till Tuesday morning.

The winds flattened a giant sign positioned six metres above a gas bar at Chatham-Kent, according to Northumberland Today. The sign fell down on a busy pedestrian crossing. Ottawa Citizen, quoting Hydro Ottawa, reported several fires has erupted as tree branches fell on power lines.

Widespread power failures have been reported across the province from Windsor to Cornwall and north to the Parry Sound area. Major urban areas such as Toronto weren't spared.

A number of roads have been closed as the strong winds brought with it massive debris, including a section of Lakeshore Boulevard and Superior Avenue. Also closed were McCowan Road, between Ellesmere Road and Lawrence Avenue. Three eastbound lanes of The Queensway, just west of Kipling Avenue, were likewise closed. Ottawa Citizen reported live wires on the tracks held up a GO Transit train out of Toronto.

Citing Toronto Hydro, CTV News reported about 10,000 customers in the west and north end of the city got cut off from the power line during the height of the windstorm. Province-wide, the strong winds that knocked down trees left roughly 87,000 customers without electricity.

"I was in my studio at the time," artist Holly Ounapuu told Northumberland Today. "I heard this crack and the next thing I knew, these branches flew by my window, the tree fell over and hit the vehicles."

The wind warning covered the following areas:

  • Vaughan-Richmond Hill-Markham
  • Niagara
  • City of Hamilton
  • Burlington-Oakville
  • Mississauga-Brampton
  • Pickering-Oshawa-Southern Durham region
  • Goderich-Bluewater-Huron County
  • Wingham-Blyth
  • Mount Forest-Arthur-Wellington County
  • Orangeville-Grand Valley-Dufferin
  • Shelburne-Mansfield
  • Grey-Bruce
  • Belleville-Quinte-Northumberland
  • Kingston-Prince Edward
  • Windsor-Leamington-Essex
  • London-Middlesex
  • Sarnia-Lambton
  • Woodstock-Tillsonburg-Oxford
  • Halton Hills-Milton
  • Caledon
  • Stratford-Mitchell-Perth
  • Listowel-Milverton
  • Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo
  • Guelph-Erin
  • Chatham-Kent
  • Elgin
  • Simcoe-Delhi-Norfolk
  • Dunnville-Caledonia-Haldimand
  • Brantford-Brant County

Holy wind tunnel, Batman! That is one fierce wind. #Toronto

— Jill Nelson (@nelson_jill) November 24, 2014

TRAFFIC HAZARD: #Hwy140 near Netherby Road #Welland. Blowing debris on roadway. Be careful traveling through the area. ^az — Ontario Prov Police (@OPP_GTATraffic) November 24, 2014