Heavy snow causes power outages in Quebec

The weather system bringing down trees and branches will affect the province through Monday, Hydro-Québec says.

Author of the article:

Susan Schwartz, Montreal Gazette

Published Mar 10, 2024 • Last updated 9 hours ago • 2 minute read

Cars are buried under a heavy layer of snow on a downtown street in Quebec City on Jan. 10, 2024. Photo by Jacques Boissinot /The Canadian Press

The number of Hydro-Québec customers without power continued to drop throughout the afternoon on Sunday — down to 44,630 at 5:30 p.m. from about 120,000 at noon.

Heavy snow accumulation affected some parts of the province, notably Mauricie, with 26,855 customers without power at 5:30 p.m. and the Quebec City region, where 9,384 customers were affected. A small number of Montrealers lost power briefly earlier Sunday afternoon.

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“The weather is causing damage to the vegetation,” said Hydro-Québec spokesperson Gabrielle Leblanc in a phone interview. “So branches, weakened by the heavy snow, break and fall and come into contact with the lines, and that’s causing outages right now.”

Freezing rain is also expected later Sunday or Monday, she said.

Leblanc said 199 teams from Hydro-Québec were in the field to evaluate the damage.

“Our teams are still trying to assess what kind of work needs to be carried out in order to restore power,” she said.

Farther east, parts of the Gaspé Peninsula could see as much as 40 centimetres of snow before it turns to rain over New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

Fredericton, Saint John, N.B., and Halifax were slated to get between 25 and 50 millimetres of rain by Monday afternoon, as well as winds of up to 80 kilometres per hour in the Nova Scotia capital, according to Environment Canada’s forecast.

Flooding in low-lying areas of those cities is possible, it said.

À 9:30, il y a près de 91 000 clients en panne, à cause d’un important cocktail météo, qui s’abat depuis le début de la nuit sur une partie de la province. La région la plus touchée est la Mauricie, suivie par la Montérégie et les Laurentides.

La météo cause des dégâts au…

— Hydro-Québec (@hydroquebec) March 10, 2024

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Farther south in Quebec, the Environment Canada advisories have ended but rain, snow and strong winds did their damage. By 10 a.m., just over 121,000 residences in the province were without power. The number began to fall in the afternoon as power was restored to Hydro customers.

Snow and storm warnings for the eastern part of the province are in place through Monday. Environment Canada predicted heavy accumulations of snow during the day Monday in the Trois-Rivières, Quebec City and Baie-St-Paul regions and dangerous winter conditions in the Gaspé region on Sunday and Monday.

Higher than usual water levels and waves on the north shore near Baie-Comeau are expected — a snowfall warning and a storm surge warning are in place — and winter storm and storm surge warnings are in place for the Gaspé and for Sept-Îles and several places in the Bas-St-Laurent region.

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