Hydro One crews fanned out across the province dealing with weather-related outages Thursday.
Gusty winds and a messy mix of precipitation, which included freezing rain in some areas, were reported in parts of Sarnia-Lambton, London-Middlesex, Oxford, Huron-Perth, Grey-Bruce and Wellington counties.
Utility spokesperson Tiziana Baccega Rosa said they've been on the go since weather conditions deteriorated.
"It has been a busy morning, as I'm sure customers are experiencing themselves as they look outside and see the high winds coming through and everything, depending on where you're located, from rain to snowfall," said Baccega Rosa. "So, it's going to be one of those days across the province where we're on standby and ready to respond as outages occur."
Hundreds of customers were still without electricity when she spoke with MyNewsToday.ca at around 10:30 a.m.
"In southwestern Ontario, we have about 1,000 customers out right now, affected by 30 individual outages. So, we're seeing those scattered outages start in pockets across the province where this weather is coming through. We're all crossing our fingers that this doesn't escalate into a larger event. We're all watching the weather very carefully today and are ready to do what it takes to get customers restored."
Baccega Rosa said high winds are generally the culprit for damage, bringing trees down on lines or breaking hydro poles.
"Optimally, the idea is to restore the power and make whatever repairs are necessary at the moment. But again, depending on the type of damage that they're seeing, sometimes alternate solutions are required to get people back on as quickly and as safely as possible."
Baccega Rosa said crews appreciate customer patience as they work through whatever mother nature has in store for them.
In Sarnia-Lambton, a Hydro One pole fire was blamed for an outage in Alvinston just after 6 a.m. Thursday. Over 550 Bluewater Power and Hydro One customers were affected.
Scattered outages were also reported in St. Clair Township, Petrolia, Arkona and Grand Bend.