PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) – Powerful winds and rain left thousands of homes and businesses across the state temporarily without power on Wednesday.

The outages began at about 5 a.m., when hundreds of customers in Glocester, Scituate, Narragansett and other communities lost power for about 90 minutes.

The start of school was delayed for about 3,000 students in Foster and Glocester.

Narragansett Electric restored service to about 3,300 customers in Cumberland, Lincoln and Central Falls shortly after noon.

They had been without power for about 40 minutes. due to a tree limb on a wire in the Smithfield Avenue area of Cumberland.

Narragansett Electric spokeswoman Debbie Drew said most of the problems were caused by tree limbs hitting power lines.

AP-ES-09-29-04 1248EDT