OTTAWA, April 6 – Two people died and greater than 1,000,000 were left without power Thursday after an ice storm hit two of Canada’s most populous provinces ahead of the vacation weekend, bringing freezing rain and robust winds that toppled trees and strained power lines.
In line with Poweroutage.com, nearly 1,000,000 people were without power in Quebec and about 110,000 in Ontario as of 4 p.m. local time.
Combined power outages in each provinces topped at the least 1.3 million earlier that day.
These two provinces account for greater than half of Canada’s total population of roughly 39 million.
Electricity providers in each provinces worked to revive power, but repairs were expected to take several more days, meaning many Canadians could spend the Easter weekend in darkness.
One man died in Quebec when a tree fell on him, Prime Minister Francois Legault said at a briefing, warning people to watch out for live wires and weakened trees.
One other man died in eastern Ontario when he was struck by a falling branch, broadcaster CTV News reported.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who was elected to the legislature within the Montreal constituency, has offered federal assistance if needed.
“It’s a really difficult time … power outage for thus many individuals, trees falling, damaging buildings, cars and so forth, it’s obviously an ongoing problem,” Trudeau told reporters on a street in his neighborhood as crews cleared up a fallen tree behind him.
Montreal is certainly one of the toughest hit areas in Quebec, accounting for about half of all power outages within the largely French-speaking province.
“Seeing all these beautiful trees down, life disrupted, challenges like that … (it’s) going to be a difficult Easter weekend for a lot of families,” Trudeau said.
Hydro-Quebec hoped to revive power to about 70% of shoppers by midnight Friday, an executive on the utility company said during a televised briefing.
“Unfortunately, it’s the beginning of a protracted weekend and a few areas are more complex and we cannot give you the chance to reconnect immediately,” said Regis Tellier, Hydro-Quebec’s vice chairman of operations and maintenance.
In town of Ottawa, crews are expected to revive power to a big proportion of the roughly 65,000 affected customers by noon, Mayor Mark Sutcliffe said.
Some areas within the national capital “remain unsafe with falling debris and power outages affecting traffic lights,” Sutcliffe said.