MONTREAL -- More than 15,000 homes and businesses in Quebec were still without power and air conditioning this afternoon following violent storms.
As of 2 p.m., 15,234 Hydro-Quebec customers were blacked out, mainly due to fallen trees and branches on power lines.
About 8,000 of the outages were in the Laurentian region north of Montreal and in the Lanaudiere area northeast of the city.
Another 5,512 customers were affected in the Outaouais region in western Quebec.
Hydro-Quebec said nearly 163,000 customers were without power at the peak of the outages Monday night.
The utility said some people will not have power back before the end of the day Wednesday.
The outages hit as Environment Canada warns of a heat wave persisting in Quebec until Friday.
