120,000 Hydro One customers without power after storms sweep through Ontario
More than 120,000 Ontario customers, many in the eastern part of the province, were without power late Wednesday, Hydro One reported, after storms swept through the province.
Police said that in Markham a man died while cutting up a tree that had fallen in the storm.
In Quebec, hundreds of thousands were without power. Quebec's power utility said that more than 676,000 of its 4.5 million customers had no power, with much of the province under a freezing rain warning.
What's causing the outages is the mixture of precipitation and wind," Hydro-Quebec spokeswoman Gabrielle Leblanc said. It weighs down the vegetation; there can be branches and trees that fall on the lines."
Five trains got stuck on the tracks of Ottawa's light rail transit system, with no timeline to reopen as of Wednesday evening, as a result of a power issue stemming from the freezing rain storm.
Earlier, Environment Canada issued tornado and severe thunderstorm watches for parts of southern Ontario.
It later ended the alerts for Windsor, Essex, Chatham-Kent and Rondeau Park in southwestern Ontario, after warning that conditions were favourable for developing severe thunderstorms that could produce tornadoes.
In Toronto, a rainfall warning was issued late Wednesday afternoon..
In watches issued Wednesday morning, which have since ended, the agency predicted strong wind gusts and even large hail developing through the day in areas like Hamilton, Halton Hills, Milton, Niagara, and St. Catharines. In the evening, the forecast is of a risk of thunderstorms as well as wind gusts.
GTA residents awoke Wednesday morning to a thunder-and-lightning show in the early hours.
No alerts have been issued for Toronto so far, although the area is still experiencing showers or thunderstorms, with a local accumulation of 10 to 20 millimetres of rain. The showers are expected to end before Thursday morning, with a risk of thunderstorms this evening. Nighttime temperatures could climb to 18 C before falling overnight.
With files from The Canadian Press