Death toll from Canada’s storm hits 10 as communities survey damage

OTTAWA, May 24 (NNN-AGENCIES) — As the death toll related to the powerful storm that swept Ontario and Quebec on Saturday reached 10 on Monday, some of the hardest-hit communities were still working to take stock of the damage.

“It’s probably easier for us to count the homes that have no damage than the ones that have damage,” said Clarence-Rockland fire chief Pierre Voisine, while surveying wreckage in nearby Hammond, Ont., on Monday.

The storm hit the region hard enough to reduce some homes to twisted piles of timber, while downed power lines and broken telephone polls are still blocking streets strewn with debris from uprooted trees and rubble from wrecked buildings.

The scale of the destruction prompted the community, along with the town of Uxbridge, Ont., east of Toronto, to declare a state of emergency.

Tens of thousands of people were without power after gusting winds of 120 km/h knocked down trees and hydro wires in Ontario, the most populous province of Canada, and the national capital region on Saturday, according to CTV news.

Hydro One, a Canadian electricity transmission and distribution service provider, reported that about 185,000 customers were without power as of mid-afternoon Monday, though service had been restored to more than 380,000 customers.

Across the provincial border, Hydro-Quebec had around 1,500 outages affecting over 200,000 customers.

Hydro Ottawa said it had restored power to more than 70,000 customers as of mid-morning Monday, while an estimated 110,000 customers were still without power.

The utility said the damage was significantly worse than the 1998 Ice Storm and the tornadoes of 2018, adding it had brought in crews from the Toronto area and New Brunswick to assist in repairs, according to CTV news. — NNN-AGENCIES