More than 50 percent of households in central St. Lawrence County were without power around 6 p.m. after strong winds and rain swept through the area.

A tornado watch remains in effect through 11 p.m., according to the National Weather Service.

Trees were downed across and number of roadways and emergency crews were out in force. Local citizens were also observed using their own chain saws to clear roads after trees blocked vehicle traffic in some areas.

The hardest hit communities include Pierrepont, Potsdam, Canton, Hermon, Russell, DeKalb, Clare, Macomb, Hammond and Rossie.

Here are the number of outages by locality, along with total number of Niagara Mohawk customers in each communited:

• Pierrepont: 1,280 without power, out of a total of 1,293 National Grid customers

• DeKalb: 606 without power out of 836 customers

• Town of Canton: 1,117 without power out of 2,035 customers

• Village of Canton: 155 without power out of 1,759 customers

• Town of Potsdam: 794 without power out of 2,445 customers

• Village of Potsdam: 1,011 without power out of 2,638 customers

• Hermon: 467 without power out of 629 customers

• Russsell: 939 without power out of 943 customers

• Clare: all 63 customers without power

• Macomb: 476 without power out of 818 customerss

• Hammond: 454 without power out of 1,184 customers

• Rossie: 124 without power out of 496 customers

Spectrum, the cable tv and internet provider, also reported a number of customers without service.