At least eight people have died and hundreds of thousands were left without access to power due to the storm that hit southern Ontario and Quebec in Canada on Saturday.

Canadian authorities confirmed this Sunday that at least eight people died in the country due to the stormas collected Radio Canada News.

Damage from the storm prompted the towns of Uxbridge, north of Toronto, and Clarence-Rockland, east of Ottawa, to declare states of emergency.while hundreds of thousands of people in Ontario and Quebec remain without power as emergency crews work to restore services.

For their part, electricity suppliers have warned that it could take days for some customers to have electricity again.

“Between the trees, the branches, the broken poles and the downed wires, it’s really a very, very complicated cleaning.”said Hydro One spokeswoman Tiziana Baccega Rosa.

Environment Canada updated its forecast for parts of Quebec this Sunday afternoon, warning of heavy thunderstorms.

The storm also left hundreds of thousands of people without power. Hydro One, which supplies electricity to Ontario, said some 260,000 customers were still without power as of Sunday morning.

For its part, Hydro Ottawa, the Canadian capital’s electricity distributor, said the power outages affected some 170,000 customers following power line outages.

The company also warned in a statement that the situation was complex as transmission and distribution infrastructure had suffered severe damage.

Wind gusts of more than 130 kilometers per hour knocked down trees and power lines late Saturday in southeastern Ontario and southwestern Quebec.

At least two people have died in and around Ottawa. The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) today reported that a 44-year-old man died west of Ottawa when he was struck by a fallen branch of a tree.

For its part, the Ottawa police reported the death of a second person also in the west of the Canadian capital.

Near the Canadian capital, but in the province of Quebec, Gatineau police reported that a 51-year-old woman died when the wind capsized a boat in the Ottawa River.

Two other people, including a 70-year-old woman, died in suburban Toronto also from falling trees.

The town of Uxbridge, about 80 kilometers northeast of Toronto, declared a state of emergency over damage from the storm, which at times reached the intensity of a small tornado and forced the Service Canadian Meteorological Service to broadcast an emergency on the mobile phones of the inhabitants of the disaster areas.

(With information from Europa Press and EFE)

KEEP READING: