Trees down, tens of thousands lose power across Montreal as winds reach 100 km/h

Dozens of trees were pulleddown and more than 100,000homes and businesseswere without poweracross Montreal, as the high winds originally forecast for Halloween arrived Friday instead.

Howling winds gusting up to 100 kilometres per hour all but shut down Montreal's Trudeau airport, with mostdepartures either delayed or cancelled.

Still, Montreal has been spared the worst of the storm that's raged acrosssouthwestern Quebec. Municipalities in the Eastern Townships are evacuating homesalongthe Saint-FranoisRiver that flooded under the heavy rain, and hundreds of thousands of Hydro-Qubec clients are without power in the Montrgie and elsewhere in the province.

Hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses were without power in Quebec.

The howling windsaren't expected to let up until this evening in Montreal. An Environment Canada warning, issued warning early Fridaymorning, calledfor southwesterly winds of up to 100 km/h throughout the day.

"Damage to buildings, such as to roof shingles and windows, may occur. Loose objects may be tossed by the wind and cause injury or damage," Environment Canada warned.

Just after 10 a.m.,the sun did pop out in Montreal perhaps givingthose who put away their Halloween costumes cause for hope that they'll still be able to take to the streetsFriday evening.

On Wednesday, Montreal joined several other Quebec municipalities in encouraging families to trick-or-treat Fridaybecause of the spooky forecast.

The move spawned a hashtag many people called it #Halloweengateon social media. There's little agreement over whether it was best to postponetrick-or-treating or to leave Halloween on its official date, Oct. 31.

Mayor Valrie Plante even tweeted,"Damn[ed] if you do, damn[ed] if you don't," in response to the criticism.

There was a torrential downpour on Thursday night in Montreal, as predicted,but many bravedthe rain in their costumes to do their round of candy-collecting, anyway.

In Mascouche, some came up with a creative solution.