Thousands of Quebec homes are without electricity this morning following yesterday's winter storm.

At 7:30 a.m., Hydro-Québec reported that 35,900 clients were without power in the Laurentians, Lanaudière, Mauricie, Chaudière-Appalaches, Montérégie and Quebec City regions.

"Our teams are hard at work and Hydro-Québec is making every effort to ensure that its customers' power is restored as soon as possible," the company said in a statement released this morning.

Quebec was blanketed with snow yesterday, with Montreal receiving more than 15 centimetres in the last 48 hours.

City of Montreal spokesman Jacques-Alain Lavallée said that 3,000 workers are out clearing the streets. Six boroughs, including downtown, have been cleared.

According to Lavallée, each operation uses $17 million from the city's $150 million annual snow removal budget.

Road conditions lead to crashes

Yesterday's snowfall caused several collisions on roadways throughout the province.

A streetlight was knocked down in a crash involving four cars near Boucherville on Montreal's South Shore.

One person sustained minor injuries, and traffic was backed up for several kilometres on Highway 30.

In Montreal, a large truck jackknifed on Highway 25 near the toll bridge around 8:30 a.m. Two of the three lanes were closed.

Motorists urged to park off streets

Snow-clearing equipment was out in force yesterday. Neighbours helped neighbours to dig out and push out each others' vehicles.

Some complained about the large piles of snow left behind by earlier visits of snow-clearing trucks.

"That's why we ask for Montrealers to cooperate with us as much as possible," Lavallée explained. "Respect whatever signs are put up."

"Every time we have to tow a car, it slows down our operation by 10 minutes," he said.

Lavallée's suggestion is that motorists get their cars off the street during a big snowfall and leave them in a parking lot.

"That would help us out tremendously, and that would speed up also the process," he said.