Schools closed, tens of thousands in the dark after strong winds, rain batter Quebec

More than 200,000 Quebecers were left in the dark and Montreal'slight-rail network was downafter violent winds and heavy rain pummeled much of the province overnight.

Hydro-Qubec crews were still out working to get the lights back on for just under 60,000 customers as of 1 p.m. Thursday.

Mostof the outages are in the Montrgie andMontreal regions, followed by the Eastern Townships, Lanaudire and the Laurentians.

The public utility said a total of 470 teams around 940 workers will be working to restore electricity as quickly as possible.

Sixschoolsunder the Lester B. Pearson School Board,including four elementary schools,are closed Thursday due to the ongoing power outages.

The New Frontiers School Board inChteauguay, southwest of Montreal, says two of its schools are also closed.

Environment Canada meteorologist Georgina Barradas said a cold and warm front collided,causing sharp changes in temperature.

In Montreal, the temperature dropped from 13 C to -12 C in just a few hours overnight.

"When you lose almost 20 degrees in three hours, that's very impressive, so it was never about a lot of rain, it was never about precipitation, it was mostly about two different air masses," saidBarradas

She saidheavy winds with gusts of nearly 100 kilometres an hour hit the Montreal area.

WATCH| Don't like the weather, wait a minute:

Wild weather whiplash swings Montreal area from spring to winter temperatures

7 months ago

Duration 1:19

In Montreal, the temperature dropped from 13 C to 12 C overnight. Violent winds resulted in power outages across southern Quebec and even a major breakdown of Montreal's light-rail network, the Rseau express mtropolitain (REM) Wednesday evening.

Passengers stuck on REM

A power outageresulted in a major breakdown of Montreal's light-rail network, theRseau express mtropolitain(REM) Wednesday evening.

Threetrains, one of which was empty,were stalled in both directions around 7 p.m., affecting some 100 passengers.

Francis Labb, spokesperson for CDPQ Infra,which operates theREM, said people were evacuated from one of thetrains that was stalled near the Costco inMontreal'sPointe-Sainte-Charlesneighbourhood at about 8:30 p.m.

But he said passengers who were on a train stopped in the middle of the Champlain Bridge were trapped there for just over two hours.

"There were strong winds on that bridge and some flying objects were noticed and some objects were thrown on our own rails," Labb said.

"We had to remove them to get to these customers."

Another train was finally sentto get those passengersand take them to the Panama station on the South Shore.

Labbsaid the storm knocked out the REM's backup power source and crews are working to findthe source of the problem so it doesn't happen again.

Trains are running as usual again Thursday.

Environment and Climate ChangeCanada had issued warnings of strong winds and sudden temperature dropsfor almost all regions of Quebec, including violent westerly winds blowing up to 90 kilometresper hour.

Temperatures are expected to stay well below freezing Thursday.