Thousands without power day after windstorm

Thousands of people in Ontario and Quebec and a handful in New Brunswick were without power early Monday, a day after a windstorm whipped through parts of Canada.

The storm Sunday in Eastern and Central Canada had left as many as 200,000 without electricity, and streets littered with broken branches. Winds of up to 90 kilometres an hour knocked power lines down. In some areas, trees fell onto cars, houses, buildings and roads.

Severe weather stretched across the country Sunday.
(CBC)

The storm blew in from the United States, where it was blamed for at least two deaths, with one person still missing on Monday.

"Things are calmer today but, of course, it'll be cleanup day," said CBC weather broadcaster Colleen Jones.

More than 10,000 customers in Quebec City, the Laurentian area, the Lac-St-Jean area and Montreal were without electricity in the morning, according to Hydro-Québec.

The provincial power distributor estimated that service for most of the affected areas will be restored by noon, but it may take until the end of the working day for customers in Quebec City and the Laurentian area.

In Ontario, blackouts were affecting about 5,400 people, said Hydro One. The Georgian Bay area, mainly Penetanguishene and Parry Sound, were hardest hit.

New Brunswick seeing light

About 40 New Brunswickers, mainly in rural areas, were still without power, said the New Brunswick Power Corporation.

On Sunday, the storm cut electricity to about 49,000 people in Quebec, 30,000 in Ontario and 3,000 in southeastern New Brunswick. It caused schedule delays for Marine Atlantic ferries, which run between Newfoundland and Nova Scotia.

More than 1,000 New Brunswick residents, mostly in Grand Falls and Fredericton, had to cope with blackouts Sunday night.

At the ocean-front Irving Nature Park in Saint John, police cleared people from the beach while huge waves crashed across the road on Sunday afternoon. 

Linda Cornish was in the long line of cars leaving.

"It's coming right over the road down there," she said. "It's just terrible. The waves are washing right across the road. They're getting everybody off the beach and they need to because it's going to be bad."

High winds kept Saint John fire crews busy clearing tree branches from roads and handling other emergencies. 

District Chief Jim Oagles said winds wreaked havoc on the city.

"The rains didn't seem to be the problem as much as the winds. There were downed lines, power lines, cable lines, phone lines. There were trees that were up against buildings and blown over."

Windstorms hit pane

In Toronto, the lights also went out on Sunday and winds knocked over a home under construction.

In Ottawa, the windstorms were blamed for knocking out an outer window pane Sunday afternoon on the 25th floor of a hotel downtown. No one was injured, but traffic remained in chaos Monday morning, as buses and other vehicles were rerouted around the closed-off street below.

The inner pane was still in place, but was unstable. Crews were waiting until winds died down enough to safely remove the pane so they could reopen the street.

Meanwhile, in the Eastern Townships, residents said the storm was dramatic as strong winds blew through the area.

David Marler, a resident of the village of West Brome, said winds brought down trees in the area. Transport Quebec had to close Route 104 to clear a tree knocked down by heavy winds. West Brome is about 100 kilometres southeast of Montreal.

"The house was shaking. Four trees, tall big pine trees came down in the space of half an hour. Some of them just snapped in the middle, about 30 to 40 feet off the ground," Marler said.

Tom Selby, mayor of the village of Brome, said residents went without electricity for about five hours and most chose to wait out the storm indoors. Brome is also about 100 kilometres southeast of Montreal.

"I don't know where exactly the power line was down, but it was a case of a tree falling on a line, and as such, you have to wait for Hydro-Québec to get out there and find where it is and get it repaired," he said.

In the United States on Sunday, 112,000 clients were without power, including 44,000 in Maine.

A falling tree killed a motorcyclist in Massachusetts and a man drowned in New Hampshire after his kayak overturned on a river swollen with rain. Also in New Hampshire, a man who fell off a lake cruise ship during the storm is still missing.