The death toll from the powerful storms that battered eastern Canada over the weekend has risen to at least eight, authorities announced on Sunday (22.05.2022).
Police in the province of Ontario announced on CTVNews the deaths of seven people on Saturday from falling trees and branches.
The eighth victim was a woman who drowned when her boat capsized in the Ottawa River near Gatineau, a Quebec suburb of the federal capital.
High winds, gusting more than 140 kilometers per hour, battered eastern Canada on Saturday, the National Weather Service reported, adding it was a rare phenomenon called “straight.”
houses without electricity
“This storm was nearly 1,000 kilometers” long, Environment Canada’s chief climatologist, David Phillips, told local broadcaster CFRA on Sunday.
The “right” is “a long series of very active thunderstorms or microburst-like situations,” he said. “Nothing can deter him. He just moves on.”
Some 900,000 homes were without power on Saturday evening, with hundreds of thousands of homes still in darkness on Sunday afternoon, local energy providers Hydro One and Hydro-Quebec reported on Twitter, as they attempt to restore service.
Roads remain blocked with branches and debris, which will take authorities several days to clear, they said.
mg (AFP, Reuters)
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