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Hundreds of thousands of Hydro Quebec customers without power after ice storm

Click to play video: 'Weather warning in Montreal causes cancelled flights, schools and many plans'
Weather warning in Montreal causes cancelled flights, schools and many plans
Meteorologists were predicting a massive ice storm starting Wednesday in Montreal that was expected to bring the city to a halt from cancelled flights to school closures. It didn't exactly happen as forecasted. But with children home from school for the day and many people working from home, the streets were eerily empty. Tim Sargeant reports. – Mar 11, 2026

Hundreds of thousands of Hydro Quebec customers were left without power for multiple hours Thursday following Wednesday’s ice storm, the utility company says.

Hydro Quebec says on its website 96,417 addresses, down from 209,795 early Thursday morning, have been impacted as of 2:40 p.m. Eastern.

The severe weather brought heavy freezing rain by Wednesday after, leading to power outages in the Montreal area and other parts of the province.

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The early hours of the storm caused flooding in some parts of Toronto, before snow turned to ice in the eastern part of Ontario and Quebec.

Montreal-area schools and universities cancelled classes as public officials urged residents in the region to stay home.

In Montreal and Quebec City, dozens of flights were cancelled with travellers advised to check schedules before heading to the airport.

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The icy conditions also halted services on Thursday morning on some stations of the Montreal area’s REM light-rail network.

— with files from The Canadian Press

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