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.
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.
The two provinces account for more than half of Canada’s total population of about 39 million.
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.
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.
Montreal is among the worst hit areas in Quebec, accounting for about half of the total outages in the largely French-speaking province.
