The last:
- Pockets of power outages remain in Ontario and Quebec.
- Via Rail resumes service on key corridor after storm delays.
- Sunwing says return flights for stranded Canadians will continue until Friday.
- New Brunswick Power is restoring power to most customers.
- Communities on the southwest coast of the CC monitoring the floods.
- Buffalo, NY braces for more snow as police deploy to enforce travel ban.
Thousands of people in Canada were still without power or facing travel headaches Tuesday, days after violent winter storms hit just before Christmas.
Storms have wreaked havoc on power grids and travel plans over the past four days.
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Although the number of outages has dropped significantly, tens of thousands of people remained without power Tuesday as crews continued to work to repair lines destroyed by high winds and downed trees, complicated by heavy snow that made access difficult in some places
Quebec remains the most problematic spot, with around 30,000 homes and businesses without electricity. Hydro-Québec said the Capitale-Nationale, Laurentides and Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean are among the most affected regions.
Hydro-Québec said it cannot give a restoration timetable for all customers because trees and other objects prevent crews from accessing areas that are already difficult to access. The company said it is using about 1,200 hydraulic crews from across the province and 10 helicopters to clear roads and complete repair work.
About 6,000 homes and businesses are still without power in Ontario, the vast majority of them in the Georgian Bay region north of Toronto, Hydro One said as it continued its fourth day of storm restoration.
LOOK | Hydro One crews on the ‘final stretch’ of power restoration in Ontario:
Hydro One crews on the ‘final stretch’ to restore power to Ontario
While access is hampered by snow and ice-covered equipment, crews are working to restore power to remaining customers in Ontario, says Hydro One spokeswoman Tiziana Baccega Rosa.
The utility said it expects to restore power to most affected customers by the end of the day and harder-to-reach cottages “in the coming days,” spokeswoman Tiziana Baccega Rosa said.
He said weather conditions have prevented the company from using helicopters and water boats to reach seasonal properties on the islands or with only water access.
New Brunswick Power had reconnected almost everyone who had lost power by Tuesday afternoon.
Mike Gippon plows the snow in the driveway of his home in Buffalo, NY, Monday. (Joseph Cooke/Buffalo News/The Associated Press)
US storm death toll rises
South of the border, storm-battered Buffalo, New York braced for fresh snow Tuesday as it still struggled to recover from an epic blizzard that killed at least 34 people in the region.
Mayor Byron Brown’s office announced seven additional storm-related deaths Tuesday, bringing the total to 27 in Buffalo, along with at least seven fatalities in the suburbs.
State and military police were being dispatched to enforce the driving ban on the snow-choked streets. County Executive Mark Poloncarz said police would be stationed at Buffalo’s entrances and major intersections.
Passengers are pictured early Christmas Day as they wait at the airport in Cancun, Mexico, after their delayed flight to Canada was canceled. (Hina Itsaso/The Canadian Press)
The U.S. National Weather Service predicted up to five inches of snow in Erie County, which includes Buffalo.
Although it is a relatively small amount, it is expected to make it difficult to remove the 1.25 meters of snow that fell in some places, starting on Christmas Eve. Officials said the city’s airport will remain closed until Wednesday morning.
The rest of the United States is also reeling from the ferocious storm, with at least two dozen additional deaths reported in other parts of the country and power outages in communities from Maine to Washington state. The storm claimed 57 lives, more than half in western New York, officials said Monday.
Flood Watch in BC
In British Columbia, crews were making progress restoring power after the winter meltdown on the west coast. BC Hydro said fewer than 1,000 customers, mostly in the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island, were without power, a significant decrease from the height of the storm.
Despite BC Hydro’s progress, people in southwestern BC were bracing for possible flooding on Tuesday.
Rain warnings and flood watches remained in effect Tuesday as two successive storms were expected to bring between 60 and 120 millimeters of rain late Tuesday night, according to Environment Canada.
The agency said coastal flooding was expected near the Strait of Georgia around high tide Tuesday morning. Vancouver was bracing for a high risk of flooding from a storm surge with strong winds and a high tide.
The province urged people to stay away from fast-flowing rivers and unstable banks.
People in BC are also still dealing with the aftermath of a fatal bus crash on Christmas Eve that police suspect may have been caused by freezing weather. Four people were killed and dozens injured in the Ebus crash east of Merritt near the Loon Lake exit.
Trains, planes and luggage
Hundreds of Canadians have been stranded for days in Mexico after Sunwing canceled their flights home, with many accusing the airline of “abandoning” them by not rebooking them on new flights or to not make it clear where they will stay while they wait to leave.
“Several return flights continue to be affected by delays due to displaced crew and aircraft as a result of severe weather disruptions across Canada,” the company said in a statement released Tuesday.
Sunwing said it is working “around the clock” to get passengers home.
“So far this week we have completed two recovery flights, we have another eight recovery flights planned, which are scheduled to depart up to and including December 30, 2022, and we are currently finalizing recovery plans for our remaining passengers to destination”, explained the company. said
For southbound flights, Sunwing announced Monday afternoon via Twitter that the baggage belt at Terminal 3 at Pearson International Airport in Toronto was not working and therefore could not guarantee that customers’ checked baggage accompanies them on departure aircraft. .
I’ve never seen anything like this at Pearson Airport in Toronto.
A mass of humanity and baggage upon arrival. pic.twitter.com/VfOOYxSoWA
—@Devin_Heroux
Early Tuesday, the airport tweeted that the baggage belt in question was back in operation.
However, due to high passenger volume and staffing issues, the airport is still experiencing delays in getting luggage to arriving passengers, said Tori Gass, a spokeswoman for the Authority of Greater Toronto Airports, on CBC News Tuesday.
“We brought in personnel from other places in the airport, as much as we could, to help the airlines and to put more bodies in the baggage halls,” Gass said.
LOOK | Delays and disruptions at Pearson Airport:
Pearson Airport is adding staff to help airlines minimize further delays
Spokeswoman Tori Gass says the Greater Toronto Airport Authority has been working “behind the scenes” to support airlines as they work to resolve delays and disruptions caused by the winter storms.
For rail commuters, Via Rail planned to resume service Tuesday from Toronto to Ottawa, as well as from Ottawa to Montreal. Via said trips from Toronto to Montreal will be on a “modified schedule” but warned of possible delays.
Service was canceled on Christmas Day and Christmas Day due to a CN train derailment on Saturday near Grafton, Ont. The crash shut down a stretch of track and left passengers trapped on board trains for hours over the weekend.