In Canada, freezing rain, gales leave more than a million without power

Ottawa: Over 1.2 million people were left high and dry without electricity in Canada’s two most populated provinces– Ontario and Quebec, on Thursday morning a day after freezing rain and strong winds hit the southeast part of the country, toppling trees which came crashing down on power lines. Nearly 1,000 workers worked to restore power overnight and on Thursday morning in Quebec, the province’s electricity provider said, warning that more such outages could happen given the damage caused by the storm and rain. “We are confident that we can restore power to some of the affected customers today,” Hydro-Quebec said in a statement. “Unfortunately, it is already expected that some customers will still be without power on Friday and this weekend.” About 1.1 million people did not have power in Quebec and about 167,000 in Ontario as of 10:35 am, according to Poweroutage.com. Ontario and Quebec account for more than half of Canada’s total population of about 39.6 million. In Ottawa, workers 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 capital “remain hazardous due to fallen debris and power outages affecting traffic signals,” Sutcliffe said. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who was scheduled to be in Montreal on Thursday to speak about his government’s budget, offered to provide federal assistance if required. Montreal is among the worst affected by the power outages after Wednesday’s ice storm, according to Hydro-Quebec. Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News, India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.