Two Dead, Over A Million Without Power After Ice Storm Hits Canada

“It’s a very difficult moment … the power being down for so many folks, the trees coming down, hurting buildings and cars and whatnot, is of course an ongoing concern,” Trudeau told reporters on a street in his district as crews cleaned up a fallen tree behind him.

Montreal is among the worst hit areas in Quebec, accounting for about half of the total outages in the largely French-speaking province.

“Seeing all these beautiful trees down, seeing lives disrupted, seeing similar challenges … (it) will be a difficult Easter weekend for a number of families,” Trudeau said.

Hydro-Quebec was hoping to restore power for about 70% of customers by Friday midnight, an executive at the utility said in a televised briefing.

“Unfortunately, it is the start of a long weekend and certain areas are more complex that we will not be able to reconnect immediately,” said Regis Tellier, Hydro-Quebec’s vice president of operations and maintenance.

In the city of Ottawa, crews were expected to restore power for a large portion of some 65,000 affected customers by noon, Mayor Mark Sutcliffe said.

Some areas in the national capital “remain hazardous due to fallen debris and power outages affecting traffic signals,” Sutcliffe said.

Reuters

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