On Thursday, two people were killed, and over a million people were left without power as an ice storm hit Canada’s two most populous provinces ahead of a holiday weekend, bringing freezing rain and strong winds that toppled trees and dragged down power lines.
According to Poweroutage.com, little under a million people in Quebec and roughly 110,000 in Ontario were without power as of 4 p.m. (2000 GMT). Earlier in the day, the cumulative number of outages in both provinces had surpassed 1.3 million.
The two provinces account for about half of Canada’s population of approximately 39 million people.
Electricity suppliers in both provinces attempted to restore electricity, but repairs were likely to take several days, leaving many Canadians in the dark throughout the Easter weekend.
Premier Francois Legault announced at a press conference that one man was murdered in Quebec when a tree fell on him, warning people to be cautious of live wires and fallen trees. Another guy died in eastern Ontario after being hit by a falling branch, according to CTV News.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, elected in a Montreal constituency, offered government support if needed.
“It’s a very difficult moment… the power outage for so many people, the trees falling and damaging buildings and cars and so on, is, of course, an ongoing concern,” Trudeau told reporters on the street in his district as crews cleaned up a fallen tree behind him.
Montreal is one of the hardest-hit areas in Quebec, accounting for roughly half of the province’s total outages.
“Seeing all of these beautiful trees down, lives disrupted, similar challenges… (it) will be a difficult Easter weekend for several families,” Trudeau said.
According to a televised briefing, Hydro-Quebec hoped to restore power to around 70% of customers by Friday midnight.
“Unfortunately, it is the beginning of a long weekend, and certain areas are more complex, so we will not be able to reconnect immediately,” said Regis Tellier, vice president of operations and maintenance at Hydro-Quebec.
According to Mayor Mark Sutcliffe, crews in Ottawa were anticipated to restore power to a vast portion of the city’s 65,000 impacted customers by midday.
Sutcliffe stated that several districts of the national capital “remain hazardous due to fallen debris and power outages affecting traffic signals.”
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