Power has been restored to thousands of residents who were stuck in the dark Wednesday after a fierce storm blew through eastern Ontario and western Quebec the previous night.
The storm left behind as much as 15 centimetres of snow and thousands of homes and businesses were without power.
Wet, heavy snow downed tree branches and power lines, knocking out power for about 22,000 Hydro One customers in eastern Ontario and more than 70,000 customers in Quebec.
In Ontario, the majority of power outages hit east of highway 4-16 to the Quebec border and included Winchester, Arnprior, Brockville and Vankleek Hill.
As of Wednesday evening, roughly 8,000 homes and businesses were still without power.
In Quebec, the number of households without power was down in the evening to 51,000, from as much as 70,000 earlier in the day.
There are now 150 repair crews working around the clock to restore power to the affected areas, which include:
In the Outaouais region, Gatineau has been restored, but there are still 17,000 clients in other areas (down from nearly 30,000) that are still affected.
Hydro crews in Quebec cannot speculate when full power will be restored, CTV Montreal reported.
The good news for trick-or-treaters is that all snow should be melted in time for Halloween night, as temperatures are expected to rise throughout the region toward the end of the week.
The forecast for Ottawa calls for rain and a temperature of 12 C for Halloween.
The storm blew north from the east coast of the U.S., which saw anywhere from five to 30 centimetres of snow Tuesday, causing power outages and road and school closures throughout New York State, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Eastern Ontario’s first snowfall came early this year. Last year’s first major storm hit the area on November 16.
The 2007/2008 winter season was one of the snowiest in recent memory for the region, as snowfall levels approached the 1970-71 record of 441.1 centimetres.
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