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More than 10,000 homes and businesses throughout the state are without power after thunderstorms tore through the region Monday morning, bringing intense wind gusts that took down trees and wires and caused flooding in local streets and on regional roadways.

At about 10:45 a.m. the highest concentration of outages was in Kent, where more than 2,000 customers -- more than 95 percent of the town -- was in the dark. There were also about 1,100 outages in Danbury and about 850 in New Milford.

CL&P spokesman Mitch Gross said the outages in Kent and New Milford were caused by damage to a substation that he said it would take several hours to repair.

The other outages throughout the state were all caused by a combination of downed wires and lightning strikes, Gross said.

In Stamford, police shut down the southbound lane of Long Ridge Road after a 13,000-volt power line came down and caught fire near the intersection of Long Ridge and Midrocks Drive.

Traffic is expected to be congested in the area for several more hours as CL&P crews worked to restore power to about 145 homes that lost power after the wire came down.

"(The wire) was dancing," said Stamford Fire & Rescue Capt. Mike Repp. "It was coming out of the bushes, so we blocked the southbound lane. It was spectacular."

State police received numerous reports of weather-related hazards on the area's roadways, including significant flooding on the Merritt Parkway near exit 48 in Trumbull and a downed tree on the southbound Parkway between exits 53 and 52 in Stratford that forced police to shut down one lane of traffic.

Metro-North trains were delayed by up to a half hour throughout the morning after a wire was struck by lightning and came down onto the tracks at the Southport train station.

There were numerous reports of buildings being struck by lightning, though in southwestern Connecticut there were no reported injuries caused by the strikes.

In North Stonington, NBC Connecticut reported that seven people were struck by lightning on the Lake of Isles golf course. All seven were hospitalized with what were believed to be life-threatening injuries, fire officials told the station.

The National Weather Service issued a severe thunderstorm watch for Fairfield County at 5:40 a.m.

The watch is in effect until 1 p.m. today.

"Small hail...and gusty winds up to 50 mph are expected with these storms," the NWS said in a statement. "In addition...very heavy rain...is occurring with these storms. This could cause ponding of water on roadways...and minor flooding in poor drainage areas."

The nasty weather should subside by the evening, however, when temperatures are expected to drop into the 50s, from earlier highs in the mid-70s.

Intermittent rain is expected throughout the rest of the week, but the weekend should be relatively dry.