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More than 200,000 Hydro-Québec customers are without electricity Thursday morning, after freezing rain and high winds brought down power lines overnight.
While the province avoided the worst of the anticipated ice storm, some schools in southern Quebec remained closed for a second day due to poor road conditions and power outages.
The Lester B. Pearson School Board, the New Frontiers School Board and the Centre de services scolaire des Patriotes are closed again Thursday.
The English Montreal School Board, the Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board and the Centre de services scolaire de Montréal all opted to reopen, though a handful of schools in select areas and those without power will remain closed Thursday.
Montreal and the Montérégie were among those hardest hit by the outages, with more than 32,000 addresses affected in Montreal and more than 80,000 in the Montérégie as of 8 a.m Thursday.
“Overnight, we had an increase in the number of addresses without power in Quebec,” said Hydro-Québec spokesperson Cendrix Bouchard.
The public utility’s 550 teams will be deployed in full force this morning, he said, but stressed that difficult conditions could make it slower to restore service in some areas.
“Just getting to an outage will take longer than usual,” Bouchard said.
“The roads are slippery for everybody, and we always remind the workers to always stay safe.”
REM service disrupted
Simon Legault, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, told CBC Montreal’s Daybreak that high winds today could lead to further power outages.
He also said temperatures are expected to drop, which could make for problems on the roads where there was a buildup of water.
Service was disrupted on Montreal’s light-rail network, the REM, during the morning commute between the Gare-Centrale and Brossard stations.
Shuttle buses had to be put in place on the South Shore and Nuns’ Island.
A spokesperson said service was gradually being restored as of 9 a.m. after ice had been cleared off the cables.
People wait for a shuttle bus after part of the REM was shut down due to ice buildup. (Simon-Marc Charron/Radio-Canada)Snow further east
While Montreal and the surrounding area was hit with freezing rain, other parts of the province saw a mix of snow and ice pellets.
A snowfall warning remained in effect Thursday for Baie-Comeau and Sept-Îles, where up to 40 centimetres of snow is expected to fall by Thursday afternoon.
Transport Quebec says road conditions are particularly bad in the Côte-Nord and Gaspé regions. Spokesperson Sarah Bensadoun says parts of Route 132 and Route 138 are closed to trucks today because of safety issues.
Several schools in the Quebec City area also remained closed Thursday morning, though some daycare services were open.
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