BARRIE, ONT. -- Some Southern Georgian Bay residents were without power for a full day after fierce winds tore across the province Sunday.

Hydro One says wind gusts of some 100 km/h knocked 161,000 customers offline in a storm the utility calls one of the worst in the last two years.

The same storm system left more than 10,000 customers in Barrie without power; 8,500 through Oro-Medonte and Springwater.

Damaging winds brought trees down not only onto power lines, but across roads, onto homes and vehicles. Trees burned, sparked by transformer fires. Fences were torn out of the ground.

Sunday's storm even warped the metal support of a sign outside a Travelodge in Barrie. Police closed Bayfield Street between Coulter Street and Hwy 400 for fear the sign would crash to the ground. Engineers eventually brought the sign down by cutting out part of the remaining support structure.

The peak gust on Georgian Bay was reached 62 knots or 115 km/h at the Western islands around 7 p.m.