The province of Quebec was under rain and sleet warnings issued by the Ministry of the Environment, with authorities warning on Wednesday that “an accumulation of ice could break tree branches”.
More than 945,000 Hydro-Quebec customers found themselves without electricity at 2 a.m. this Thursday in Lisbon, out of a total of 4.5 million.
“Cuts are mainly caused by falling branches or trees that sag under the weight of the ice.“, according to the website of the electricity supplier.
Nearly half of them (440,000) are in Montreal, where several city crews are clearing roads damaged by fallen trees and downed wires.
Police were receiving a “high volume of calls related to the ice storm”, while Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante urged caution and vigilance.
In the neighboring province of Ontario, 112,000 customers were also without power due to a winter storm that “brought trees and branches down on power lines”, according to electricity supplier Hydro One.
In the Canadian capital, Ottawa, however, alerts were raised overnight.
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