Quebec's hydro utility was working to reestablish power for tens of thousands of customers on Thursday after an ice storm descended over the province's south, knocking down branches and turning streets and sidewalks into skating rinks.
At its peak, more than 200,000 clients were without power in Quebec after Wednesday's storm. By 12:30 p.m. the following day, that number was down to about 130,000, with the worst-hit area being the Montérégie region south of Montreal, with about 51,000 clients without electricity.
Premier François Legault told reporters in Montreal that roughly 2,000 workers with Hydro-Québec were repairing distribution lines across the province, adding that the majority of outages should be resolved by 11 p.m.
"I understand that some people have been without power for several hours. It's difficult, but at the same time, I can assure you that Hydro-Québec is doing everything possible to resolve this as quickly as possible."
Earlier in the day, Louis-Olivier Batty, a spokesperson for Hydro-Québec, said the storm did not cause serious widespread damage to equipment. "So that's the good news: there's a lot of damage, but it's fairly easy to repair."
For the most part, the storm was not as bad as forecast. A spokesperson for the Urgences-Santé ambulance service said they had received fewer 911 calls than anticipated. Geneviève Poirier, operations chief, said there were no spikes in calls compared to an average day, which she said suggested people followed calls by officials to stay off the roads.
"The directives bore fruit because people stayed home," she said.
Meteorologists had warned the system could resemble the major ice storm that hit parts of southern Quebec and eastern Ontario in April 2023, when some areas — including Montreal — received about 30 millimetres of freezing rain, disrupting travel and knocking out power for more than a million people in the two provinces.
Environment Canada lifted all its freezing rain warnings for southwestern Quebec on Thursday. In a preliminary summary from 11 a.m., the federal weather agency said Quebec's Outaouais region received between 20 to 30 mm of freezing rain, Montreal had 20 mm, the Laurentians received between 15 and 20 mm and Quebec City saw 10 to 15 mm.
Patrick Murphy, a Plateau Mont-Royal resident, said he was worried he would lose electricity on Wednesday "with a baby in the household, but we didn't lose power," Murphy said. "We got lucky but it's good to be prudent."
Justine Kronovsek was waiting for her husband outside the Plateau's Laurier metro station after learning her child's daycare was closed because of flooding and power outages. But she said she was happy her home didn't lose power.
"We were expecting (an outage) but it was pretty smooth," Kronovsek said. "I think everyone is so traumatized from what happened three years ago so it's better to prepare for the worst: three years ago it was a mess."
Numerous flights were cancelled in Montreal and Quebec City on Wednesday, but airport operations returned largely to normal Thursday.
Classes were cancelled across southern Quebec on Wednesday, and while some schools reopened Thursday, many stayed closed for a second day.
The icy conditions also halted transit services on Thursday morning on some stations of the Montreal area's REM light-rail network, on the link between Brossard and Central Station. That same segment was closed late Wednesday afternoon after freezing rain hit.
"An episode of intense freezing rain, localized on the South Shore and the Champlain Bridge, led to an exceptional accumulation of ice on the overhead power lines, causing a complete shutdown of service between Brossard and Central Station," the REM's operator, Pulsar, said in a statement.
Preventive measures were ineffective and crews began manually de-icing the overheard power lines along 15 kilometres of track. That operation began Wednesday and took several hours. Service resumed gradually just before 9 a.m. Thursday.
Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christinne Muschi
