Two people died and more than a million people were without power today, after a snowstorm lashed Canada bringing freezing rain and strong winds that toppled trees and disrupted power supply lines. Just under a million people in the province of Quebec and about 110,000 in the province of Ontario were without electricity, while the combined outages in the two provinces exceeded at least 1.3 million earlier today. The two provinces live in more than half of Canada’s total population of about 39 million. Electricity supply companies in the two provinces have been working to restore electricity, but repairs are expected to take several days, while Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has offered to provide federal assistance if needed. As a result of this situation, public and private schools in Montreal closed their doors today, and dozens of schools had closed their doors, since yesterday, in anticipation of the storm. Last December, Canada was hit by a strong winter storm accompanied by icy rain and heavy snowfall, which prompted the authorities to close schools and cancel many flights.
