Freezing rain and thunderstorms battered parts of Ontario and Quebec on Wednesday, knocking out power to some 800,000 people, officials said.
Quebec’s power company said shortly after 5 p.m. that more than 676,000 of its 4.5 million customers were without power as much of the province remained under a sleet warning.
“What causes outages is the combination of precipitation and wind,” said Hydro-Quebec spokeswoman Gabrielle Leblanc. “It overloads the vegetation. There may be branches and trees falling on the line.
In Montreal, more than 316,000 customers lost power, while blackouts affected another 171,000 people in the Montérégie region south of the city.
Leblanc said many outages occur in a small area, each affecting a small number of customers, so teams must repair multiple outages to restore service for everyone.
In Montreal, there have been several reports of fallen trees. Transports Quebec said weather conditions forced the closure of the Victoria Bridge, which connects Montreal to its southern suburbs.
Public Security Minister Francois Bonnardel said his agency had set up a coordination center to deal with the storm.
“Amateur introvert. Pop culture trailblazer. Incurable bacon aficionado.”
