More than 12,000 Ontario residents remain without power Saturday afternoon following a major windstorm Friday that had gusts strong enough to hurl a tree trunk through a car windshield.

The majority of those affected live in the Kingston, Brockville and Picton regions.

"It really does come down to wind at the end of the day," said Katrina Kim, spokesperson for Hydro One.

"We did see the highest damage to those areas in and around the Highway 401 corridor, basically coming off the St. Lawrence River."

More than 200,000 affected

In total, more than 200,000 Hydro One customers were affected by the wind storm Thursday and Friday, which had gusts as high as 90 kilometres an hour.

Restoration crews returned to work this morning, Kim said, and as power is restored in other parts of the province, the utility company is sending additional crews to eastern Ontario.

"Eastern [Ontario] was definitely the most impacted," she said.

Crews restored service to 15,000 households provincewide Saturday, but the company expects some customers won't have power overnight.

This home in Ottawa's east end was blown off of its wooden supports during Friday's storm, which saw wind gusts hit 90 kilometres an hour. (Stu Mills/CBC)

Also outages in western Quebec

Kim said Hydro One only gives estimates on when the power will be back on after crews on the ground can assess the area's damage.

She encouraged customers seeking updates to keep an eye on the outage map or call the outage hotline.

"The way we prioritize emergencies and restoration is to bring power back to the largest number of customers in the shortest amount of time," she said.

"We are working through the incidents like that."

Across the border, thousands of households in western Quebec are also still experiencing outages.

As of 2 p.m. Saturday afternoon, more than 3,000 households in the Outaouais were without power.

Hydro-Québec CEO Éric Martel told Radio-Canada that while the majority of the province's power network should be restored by Sunday, some customers may have to wait until next week.