Achi news desk-
More than 100,000 customers were left without power across Quebec after snow blanketed the province on Thursday.
“In some places, power lines are down due to strong gusts of wind or the weight of broken tree branches,” notes Hydro-Québec. “We are mobilizing all available teams to work on restoring service as quickly as possible.”
According to Hydro-Quebec, 112,912 customers were without power as of 6:15 p.m
The hardest hit areas are Lorraine (44,055), Monterrey (14,034) and Montreal (13,865). Lovell and Hautaua also saw about 13,000 stops each.
“For public safety, it is essential that people stay away from power lines,” the Crown Corporation emphasizes. “If you see power lines on the ground, please stay away from the area and call 911 to secure the area.”
Part of the issue, according to Hydro-Québec, is the consistency of the snow that falls.
“The snow is actually three to six times heavier than it would normally be, so it has an impact on trees, of course. Branches broke and fell on our network and caused outages,” said Cendrix Bouchard, a spokesperson for Hydro-Québec.
At the height of the outage, Bouchard says 600,000 customers were affected.
Of that number, the utility says about 400,000 connections have been restored.
“Some people will have to wait tomorrow,” Bouchard acknowledged, though he noted that Crown Corporation believes most people should have their power back by the end of the day.
“There are 12,000 people on the ground as we speak,” he said. “We knew the weather was approaching and we were prepared and deployed our workers as soon as possible.”
Meteorologists say Montreal could see up to 8 inches of snow by the end of the weather system.
It is expected to start melting over the next few days as the forecast calls for warmer weather by the end of the week.
Hydro-Quebec adds that people are “absolutely not to use outdoor equipment and devices indoors,” as fuel-burning heaters, lights, generators and portable stoves designed for outdoor use can cause suffocation or poisoning if used indoors.
Snow in April is not unusual, CTV News’ Lori Graham notes.
Montreal typically sees about 13 cm of snow during the month, and the largest snowfall recorded in one day was 33.9 cm on April 9, 2000.
closing schools
- Laval School Service Center
- School service center for the wealthy
- Alf Haim School Service Center
- Summers School Service Center
- Lester B. Pearson School Board
- Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board
Riverside School Board
- Courtland Park International School
- Harold Napper School
- Mountainview School
day care
- CPE les Bois Verts
- CPE Dollard
- CPE Hebrew Foundation
- CPE Lachine
More closures
- Fournier Academic Center
- School Integration Center Ltd
- Graves Adventist Academy
- The Hebrew Fund School
- JEM workshop
- Marianopolis College
- Miss Edgars and Miss Crumps School
- Peter Hall School
- Rotiwanhaka School
- Vice: High school
- Holy Heart School
- Psega School
- Vanguard School
Trafalgar Girls School says the day will start late, at 10am
The school states that “the doors and supervision will be as usual for anyone who arrives earlier. The regular classes will be held according to a different schedule.”
