More than one million customers in Quebec and Ontario were without power Wednesday after a messy mix of freezing rain and thunderstorms pummeled parts of both provinces.
Quebec's power utility said shortly after 2 a.m. that more than one million of its 4.5 million customers had no power, with much of the province under a freezing rain warning.
“What’s causing the outages is the mixture of precipitation and wind," Hydro-Québec spokeswoman Gabrielle Leblanc said. "It weighs down the vegetation; there can be branches and trees that fall on the lines."
In western Quebec's Outaouais region, near Ottawa, about 131,000 of the utility’s nearly 227,000 customers were without power. Environment Canada forecasted between 30 millimetres and 50 millimetres of rain in Gatineau, Que., the largest city in the region.
In Montreal, nearly 473,000 hydro customers had lost power, while almost 200,000 people were dealing with outages in the Montérégie region, south of the city. Up to 20 millimetres of freezing rain was expected, Environment Canada said, adding that 16 millimetres of freezing rain had fallen in Montreal by 2 p.m.
Leblanc said hydro crews were working overtime, but he said many of the outages are small, affecting only a few customers and making it more difficult to reconnect large numbers of people.
"Crews that were scheduled to finish at 5 p.m. will stay until 11 p.m. to get as much done as possible," Leblanc said.
In Montreal, there were numerous reports of downed trees. City police said 911 was receiving a high volume of calls on Wednesday afternoon and asked people not to call to report damage to vehicles. Transport Quebec said weather conditions forced it to close the Victoria Bridge, which connects Montreal with its southern suburbs.
Public Security Minister François Bonnardel said his department has put a coordination centre in place to deal with the storm.
“If you have to drive, adjust your driving and be careful,” he said on Twitter.
Hydro One said crews were still responding to outages in Ontario as quickly and safely as possible, but severe weather was slowing the response. An outage map showed more than 116,000 customers in the province without power early Thursday morning.
"Our crews are restoring power ... after high winds and severe thunderstorms have caused significant damage," the utility said in a statement.
The reported outages were concentrated in central Ontario, where Environment Canada issued weather warnings and forecasts of around 50 millimetres of rainfall from morning into the night.
Via Rail issued a travel advisory. It said power outages and track obstructions were causing service delays and cancellations in the Montréal-Toronto Corridor.
"We apologize for the inconvenience and passengers impacted by these cancellations will receive a full refund and 50 per cent travel credit," Via Rain said on its website.
In eastern Ontario, the agency called for prolonged periods of freezing rain with ice storm conditions continuing into the evening, which prompted school bus cancellations earlier in the morning in Ottawa.
City staff in Ottawa said Wednesday there was no timeline to get the city's light rail transit up and running again, after freezing rain shut down the system for the second time this year.
Replacement bus service was provided after five trains got stuck on the tracks, after what OC Transpo initially described as a "power issue'' on social media earlier in the day.
Mario Guerra, CEO and acting general manager of Rideau Transit Maintenance, later explained that ice buildup on the trains' overhead wires caused a big fluctuation in voltage.
He said when the trains' systems sense such irregular voltage, they automatically cut power in order to prevent potential damage.
The last time a freezing rain storm shut down the LRT, in January, commuters were out of luck along a stretch of the east-west corridor for six full days.
Several southern regions including Niagara, Windsor and Hamilton remained under severe thunderstorm watch late Wednesday, with the weather agency warning of nickel-sized hail and wind gusts near 90 kilometres per hour.
Some GO trains had been delayed and river flood warnings were in place for a number of regions along Lake Erie after thunderstorms rolled through southwestern Ontario in the morning.
Meanwhile, northern Ontario was under winter storm warnings with the forecast calling for between 15 and 25 centimetres of snow and ice accumulation before tapering off to flurries by early Thursday morning.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 5, 2023.
The Canadian Press
