Heavy snow causes more than 112,000 power outages in Quebec

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There were 112,638 Hydro-Québec customers without power on Sunday shortly before 1 pm as heavy snow accumulation in some parts of the province, notably the Mauricie, with more than 39,025 customers affected, and the Quebec City region, with more than 32,537 affected. In the Laurentians, there were 13,385 customers without power at 12:45 pm

The figure was up from fewer than 91,000 customers at 9:30 am, but down from about 120,000 at noon.

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Environment Canada predicted heavy accumulations of snow during the day Monday in the Trois-Rivières, Quebec City and Baie-Saint-Paul regions and dangerous winter conditions in the Gaspé region on Sunday and Monday.

Hydro-Québec said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, heavy, sticky snow is weighing down branches and trees, causing them to take down power lines and that the weather system will affect the province through Monday.

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It said the utility has been following the weather situation since Friday and teams have been on the ground since Sunday morning, and, if needed, employees from other regions could come to their assistance. It said the extent of damage is being evaluated and it is too early to say precisely when power will be restored.

Farther south, the Environment Canada advisories have ended, but rain, snow and strong winds did their damage. By 10 am just over 121,000 residences in the province are without power. The number of outages rose during the morning and snow and storm warnings for the eastern part of the province are in place through 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 , as plus several places in the Bas-St-Laurent region.

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