Storm knocks out power near Toronto

At least 20,000 Hydro One customers throughout southern Ontario remained without electricity Monday morning after a severe thunderstorm ripped through the region Sunday night, blowing trees into power lines and unleashing lighting strikes.

Up to 30,000 customers were without electricity Sunday night at the peak of the power outage, said Hydro One spokeswoman Daniele Gauvin.

The Newmarket, Ont., region, which includes Barrie and Peterborough, were hit with the hardest and about 8,000 customers currently remain without electricity. Around 6,000 customers are currently without electricity around Beachville, Listowel and Walkerton, which sit northwest of Toronto.

Gauvin said power would begin to return slowly in the affected regions throughout the morning and into the early evening.

Toronto was hit by pockets of power outages mostly triggered by blown down trees. Toronto Hydro spokeswoman Tanya Bruckmueller said "a couple thousand" customers were without power at the outage peak and one of the terminals at Pearson International Airport had to resort to backup electricity.

Bruckmueller said about 500 customers currently remain without electricity and it could take most of the day for Toronto crews to make the repairs before power to returns.