Winds whipped through St. Lawrence County this afternoon, downing power lines and causing more than 7,000 homes and business to lose power.

Most county school districts canceled after-school activities due to the wind.

As of 5 p.m., 7,168 customers were without electricity in St. Lawrence County, according to National Grid.

Hardest hit was Potsdam, where 1,692 customers were without electricity. Some of those outages were triggered by a large tree that fell on Market Street, cutting off power along Market Street into the downtown core of the community. Village police and firefighters directed traffic along Market Street for several hours while power crews worked to repair the damage.

National Grid is projecting power will be restored by 5:30 p.m. in the village and by 8 p.m. in the town.

Other communities with large numbers of power outages included Brasher with 709, Canton with 348, DeKalb with 656, DePeyster with 258, Fine with 321, Russel with 499 and Stockholm with 574. National Grid said electricity in most of those locations would be restored between 8 and 9 p.m.

Outages were also reported in Clare, Colton, Edwards, Fowler, Gouverneur, Hermon, Heuvelton, Hopkinton, Lawrence, Libson, Macomb, Madrid, Norfolk, Oswegatchie, Parishville, Pierrepont, Rensselaer Falls and Waddington.

The National Weather Service says there is a high likelihood that wind gusts in the 50 to 60 mph range with the ability to bring down more trees and power lines will continue until midnight.

The weather service says the high wind warning will remain in effect until 5 a.m. Thursday.