Quebec ice storm: Work underway after a million customers plunged into darkness

Day four in the dark for thousands of Quebecers Tens of thousands of people across the province are still without power four full days after a deadly ice storm.

Read the latest update here. 

Hydro-Quebec hopes to restore power to 70 to 80 per cent of customers by Friday night, officials said Thursday.

Hundreds of thousands of households are still in the dark after freezing rain tore through the province, blacking out neighbourhoods and downing several trees.

The storm claimed the life of a man in his 60s in Les Coteaux, Que., who was crushed under a large tree branch while removing trees on his property.

As of 10 p.m., the number of customers without power dropped to 705,000, with just over half (about 367,000) of them in Montreal.

The City of Montreal opened six emergency overnight shelters Thursday evening to accommodate people without electricity.

"It's pretty severe for Montreal," Energy Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon told reporters at a Thursday morning press conference.

He said more than 1,000 Hydro-Quebec workers are on the ground across the province to make repairs, and New Brunswick and Ontario have offered to provide reinforcements if needed.The outages are concentrated, Fitzgibbon noted, meaning relatively few repairs are needed to bring power back to large groups of customers at a time.

"Twenty-five per cent of the outages [...] have 1,000 connections and more. That is very concentrated, so Hydro-Quebec is focused on these areas," he explained.

Speaking at another press conference later Thursday, Hydro-Quebec president Sophie Brochu advised residents not to touch fallen trees or other debris.

To accelerate cleanup, she also asked people parked on the street to move their vehicles if they see a Hydro-Quebec crew approaching. Montreal's mayor assured residents that parking inspectors would not hand out any tickets on Thursday due to the storm.

Hydro-Quebec officials said they hope to most power restored by the end of the day Friday, noting some customers will remain in the dark this weekend.

DOWNED TREES, POWER LINES

The freezing rain storm started early Wednesday, sweeping across southern Quebec and coating swaths of the region in slick ice. Tree branches toppled over, crushing cars in some cases and falling on power lines.

Transport Quebec said weather conditions forced it to close the Victoria Bridge on Wednesday, which connects Montreal with its southern suburbs.

In addition, Via Rail issued a travel advisory, saying power outages and track obstructions caused service delays and cancellations in the Montreal-Toronto Corridor.

All city parks are closed until crews have cleared away branches, said Plante in a Thursday tweet.

Plante says all major roads have been cleared and that the city is now prioritizing residential streets.

"Limit your movements and, if you must go out, remain cautious," she wrote.

LEGAULT TURNS DOWN FEDERAL AID

Premier François Legault is asking Quebecers affected by outages to be patient. He says the situation is not serious enough to declare a state of emergency or call for military assistance.

"This is an emergency. We are dealing with it," explained the premier at a press conference.

"Since it is concentrated in Greater Montreal and Outaouais, we can even ask teams from other regions to come and help us," he added.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was in Montreal Thursday and said Canada remains on standby for assistance.

"Our focus is very much on being there as support as necessary the municipalities and the province. The federal government is here to help as needed," he said, alongside Mayor Plante as they toured neighbourhoods hit hard by the weather.

Trudeau said he would meet with Legault to discuss what the province needs.

"I know the province and the City of Montreal have a tremendous amount of great teams on the ground, doing the work," he said.

City of Montreal spokesperson Philippe Sabourin told CTV News the city remains focused on removing trees that have fallen on the streets and in parks in the city. He said citizens should avoid parks where crews are working.

"There are a lot of jobs needed to be done in the coming hours, in the coming days I would say," he said.

The city is asking citizens to call 311 only if there is a mobility issue.

"It's important that those residential streets be reopened for traffic. It's important for our emergency teams to be able to navigate in town everywhere."

Residents should call a private contractor to deal with trees that have fallen on their own property.

"If it fell on the city property, then you call 311, but only if that tree or that branch blocked the street or the sidewalk," said Sabourin.

CEMETERY CLOSED

The Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetery is closed due to the storm damage.

The cemetery's management said in a news release that broken trees, branches and other debris has clogged the cemetery's paths and the situation presents "a significant danger to visitors."

"Many branches, broken by the ice, threaten to fall at any time, posing additional risks to visitors," the release reads, adding that power has been out since Wednesday evening. "We are saddened by this situation, especially since we had made every effort to accommodate families on Easter Sunday, an important day for many."

The cemetery will remain closed until the site is cleaned up.

Parts of the province are still under a freezing rain warning Thursday. The warning has been lifted in Montreal, where periods of drizzle are forecasted throughout the morning.

Many area schools are closed in light of the bad weather and electricity issues.

With files from The Canadian Press and CTV News Montreal's Keila DePape