A Hydro crew removes fallen branches from a street following an ice storm in Montreal, on April 7. Hydro-Quebec says it's restored power to more than half a million customers since Wednesday's ice storm, but more than 500,000 remain in the dark.Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press
Three people died in the aftermath of an ice storm that swept southern Ontario and Quebec Wednesday night and left hundreds of thousands of people without power.
Hydro-Québec warned some people could wait until Monday to have electricity restored, as more than 500,000 people were still in the dark Friday afternoon.
The public utility company aimed to restore power for about 800,000 people by Friday night, said Régis Tellier, vice-president of operations and maintenance, during a morning news conference – leaving roughly 300,000 more to reconnect during and after the weekend.
In Quebec, Montreal, Laval, and the Montérégie and Laurentides regions were the most affected.
A 75-year-old man died after running his generator in his garage, where his wife found him unconscious Friday morning in Saint-Joseph-du-Lac, Que. He was taken to hospital in Ste-Eustache, but could not be saved, said Inspector Jean-Philippe Labbé of Lake-of-Two-Mountains Police.
Meanwhile, Ontario Provincial Police confirmed Friday that another man died Wednesday after he was struck by a falling tree branch at his home in South Stormont. Another man in his 60s died under similar circumstances Thursday in Les Coteaux, Que.
Simon Bilodeau, a senior adviser at the Montreal Public Health Emergency Measures Office, said at least 60 people suffered carbon-monoxide intoxication in Montreal since the onset of the outages, which put pressure on emergency rooms. Laval Health and Social Services Centre spokesperson Pierre-Yves Séguin said about 16 people were treated for carbon-monoxide intoxication Thursday night.
Both warned that fuel-burning heaters and generators should not be used indoors, and advised people seeking warmth to head to emergency shelters instead.
Mr. Tellier warned that wind gusts reaching 70 kilometres an hour on Friday could cause further outages and complicate reconnections for the more than 1,400 Hydro-Québec employees out on the field – meaning customers could spend the whole Easter long weekend without electricity.
People walk around fallen tree branches in Montreal after the ice storm.Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press
In the meantime, affected cities have set up more than 30 emergency shelters to welcome people who still lack power, Quebec Economy Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon said in a news conference.
Most affected health care facilities had recovered power or were fully functional thanks to power generators on Friday, but some clinics were still shut down in Montreal, according to local health centres’ websites.
Pierre Babinsky, the Quebec director of communications and public affairs for the Insurance Bureau of Canada, said those with damage to their houses or cars should take photos of the damage to make insurance claims. He said basic liability insurance for your car won’t cover repairs if a tree or branch falls on it; more comprehensive coverage including accidents without a collision is needed.
If food has gone bad, people can claim the contents of their fridge and freezer through basic home insurance policies up to a maximum, normally around $1,000, Mr. Babinsky said.
If you can’t be in your home because of damage, insurance will cover some additional living expenses, but “if you’re out of power and it’s getting cold in the home … you can’t claim additional living expenses,” he said.
Like half of Montreal, Myla Gelacio and her family lost power this week. On Friday, Ms. Gelacio, her husband and their three kids were at the Côte-des-Neiges sports centre, one of six emergency shelters open 24 hours in the city, to charge their phones and keep warm.
Families gather at the Marcel Giroux Community Center in Verdun, Montreal, as hundreds of thousands of homes remained without power Friday.ANDREJ IVANOV/AFP/Getty Images
They also brought basketballs, hoping to take advantage of the gymnasium, but it was closed for the weekend. Ms. Gelacio said that, fortunately, they were still able to cook on their gas stove at home, but they piled up blankets and huddled together at night to keep warm.
“Hopefully, tomorrow we’ll get power back,” Ms. Gelacio said, adding she had not received any timeline from Hydro-Québec yet.
Mama Khan, a Pakistani restaurant in Montreal’s Plateau-Mont-Royal neighbourhood, had already been giving out free meals as part of Ramadan and began offering them to those without power. Owner Abdul Raziq Khan estimates he has given out 50 meals of rice, red kidney beans, chickpeas and dal since Wednesday night.
“It’s a small gesture,” Mr. Khan said. “People are asking if there’s any way they can donate money, and it’s overwhelming for me.”
Nathalie Martin, the owner of a vineyard and sugar shack in Chelsea, in the Outaouais region, said she lost power for 24 hours and miraculously recovered it Thursday. “I’m very lucky because there are many others in Chelsea who are still not reconnected,” including neighbours, she said.
In the end, Ms. Martin had a few felled trees and lost a day of business, but was able to save most of her food inventory. They had some cancellations, “but I think at least we’ll save our Easter weekend,” she said.
With a report from The Canadian Press.