Hundreds of thousands without power as spring storm hits Quebec, Ontario

A spring storm of snow, wind and rain hit Quebec and Ontario early Thursday, leaving hundreds of thousands of people in the dark.

Hydro-Québec reported upwards of 280,000 customers were without power as of 9 a.m., with affected areas ranging from near Gatineau to Montreal’s eastern suburbs.

The public utility says more than 1,000 workers were working to get the lights back on and additional teams will be brought in throughout the day.

“The storm is not yet over and is still moving. New outages could occur during the day, with significant wind gusts expected in several areas,” Hydro-Québec said in a message on social media.

2:06 Spring storm rolls into Quebec

Winter’s last laugh is expected to bring up to 20 centimetres of snow to several parts of Quebec by the evening, according to Environment Canada.

Several schools Montreal, including the English Montreal School Board and Lester B. Pearson School Board, were closed for the day.  Other school boards in southern Quebec closed individual schools that didn’t have electricity.

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“Snow will be heavy and wet at times as temperatures will remain near the freezing mark,” Environment Canada said in a warning. “Wet snow combined with northeast winds reaching up to 70 km/h are leading to locally reduced visibilities.”

Quebec’s Transport Ministry urged drivers to take care on the roads and to consider postponing non-essential travel — especially if they have already taken their winter tires off their vehicles.

In Montreal, many arrivals and departures were either delayed or cancelled at the Trudeau airport. City crews were also forced to quickly adapt to the blast of snowy weather and pivot from springtime street cleaning.

“We were on the cleaning operation,” said city spokesperson Philippe Sabourin. “Now we’re on a clearing operation.”

In Ontario, the spring storm brought high winds and downed power lines and trees. Hydro One says 59,000 of its customers have no electricity.

However, a statement says its crews have already restored power to some 125,000 customers since the storm began Wednesday.

A handful of flights connecting travellers between Montreal and Toronto were cancelled, Toronto Pearson Airport said.

— with files from Global’s Brayden Jagger Haines and The Canadian Press