Ottawa woke up to 11 centimetres of snow Wednesday morning, and even more fell on nearby areas of Quebec. (Emily Chung/CBC)Thousands of people in Quebec and eastern Ontario were without power Wednesday morning after the first snowfall of the season, prompting the closure of some schools.

A storm system that crept up the east coast of the U.S. and blew across eastern Ontario and western Quebec dumped between 10 and 20 centimetres of wet snow under strong wind gusts.

Up to four more centimetres of blowing snow were expected to fall in Ottawa on Wednesday before ending sometime in the morning and starting to melt as the temperature moves toward the expected high of 1 C.

Hydro-Québec said about 65,000 customers in the Laurentians and the Outaouais, including 200 in Montreal, would have to wait until later Wednesday before power is restored.

Luanne Waddell brought her two youngest children to their Aylmer, Que., daycare Wednesday morning, but it was closed.

"They can't have it open if there's no power, so we're playing cards … and my youngest is napping right now," she said.

In eastern Ontario, about 10,000 households lost power between Highway 416 and the Quebec border, and Hydro One predicted that some would remain without power until noon.

In Ottawa, about 400 customers in the Fisher Heights area will have to wait until later in the day for their power to be restored, Hydro One said.

Outside Ottawa, the power utility said, some people could be without power until the evening.

The wet, heavy snow felled trees around the region, including this one that landed on a car on Buckingham Private in Ottawa. (Paul Morisset/CBC)Most of the interruptions in the grid are due to trees and branches either touching or falling on power lines, said Hydro-Québec spokeswoman Renée Arsenault.

"If a branch, because of the wind for example, touches the line once, the power comes back on, it will do that three times, " she said.

"But the third time, the protection mechanism will throw the line out because, you know, it sort of detects something is not normal. So it's either of those three situations: a branch touching, a branch falling on the line, or a whole tree falling on the line."

Some Quebec residents may have to wait until Thursday for their power to return.

The heavy snow and wind didn't just fell power lines and trees. Lody Nasrallah was at a Canadian Tire store in Ottawa Wednesday morning to replace another casualty: "As I was driving in to work today, my wiper blades flew off, snapped off," she said, blaming the build-up of snow and ice on the windshield.

The store was a busy place Wednesday, when drivers could expect a six-hour wait if they wanted snow tires installed.

Upper Canada School Board, Laurentians close schools

The Commission scolaire Pierre-Neveu in the Laurentians closed all elementary and high schools because of poor road conditions.

The power outages also prompted the closure of some schools in eastern Ontario's Upper Canada School Board:

• Russell Elementary.
• Russell High School.
• Cambridge Public School.
• Glen Tay School.
• S.J. McLeod Public School.
• North Stormont Public School.

School buses were cancelled for two schools in the Catholic board system, Mother Teresa Catholic School and St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic High School, but the schools remained open.

Just before 7:30 a.m., the Ontario Provincial Police reported 23 collisions across eastern Ontario. Ottawa's traffic control said many of the city's roads were clear of snow, but seven intersections remained without traffic lights.

A winter storm watch was in effect Tuesday from Brockville and the eastern edge of Algonquin Park to the Quebec boundary.

The snow system passed over Montreal, where a few centimetres accumulated but will melt as the forecast calls for warmer weather later in the week in the greater island region. But eastern Ontario and western Quebec can expect more snow.

Wind gusts up to 60 km/h created hazardous driving conditions.

In eastern Quebec, heavy rain fell Tuesday night, leaving up to 140 millimetres in the region between Bonaventure and Port Daniel.

A handful of homes were evacuated as a precaution, public security officials said.