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<\/a><\/p>\nBy Ismail Shakil<\/p>\n
OTTAWA (Reuters) – Two people died and more than a million were without power on Thursday after an ice storm hit Canada’s two most-populated provinces ahead of a holiday weekend, bringing freezing rain and strong winds that toppled trees and weighed down power lines.<\/p>\n
Just under a million people did not have power in Quebec and about 110,000 in Ontario as of 4 p.m. (2000 GMT), according to Poweroutage.com. Outages combined for both provinces had crossed at least 1.3 million earlier in the day.<\/p>\n
The two provinces account for more than half of Canada’s total population of about 39 million. <\/p>\n
Electricity providers in both provinces were working to restore power, but repairs were expected continue for days, meaning many Canadians could spend Easter weekend in the dark.<\/p>\n
One man was killed in Quebec when a tree fell on him, Premier Francois Legault said at a briefing, cautioning people to watch out for live wires and weakened trees. Another man died in eastern Ontario when he was struck by a falling branch, broadcaster CTV News reported.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who was elected to parliament in a Montreal constituency, offered to provide federal assistance if required.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
Montreal is among the worst hit areas in Quebec, accounting for about half of the total outages in the largely French-speaking province.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Some areas in the national capital “remain hazardous due to fallen debris and power outages affecting traffic signals,” Sutcliffe said.<\/p>\n
\n(Reporting by Ismail Shakil; Editing by Mark Heinrich, Susan Fenton, Deepa Babington and Richard Chang)<\/p>\n
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