800000 without power as heavy storms hit Canada

Freezing rain and thunderstorms battered parts of Ontario and Quebec, cutting power to about 800,000 people, Canadian officials said.

The Quebec energy utility said shortly after 5 p.m. More than 676,000 of its 4.5 million customers had no electricity because most of the province remained under a freezing rain warning.

“The outage is caused by a combination of precipitation and wind... it's weighing down the vegetation,” Hydro-Québec spokeswoman Gabrielle Leblanc said. "There could be fallen branches and trees on the lines".

In Montreal, more than 316,000 customers lost power, while 171,000 people were affected by power outages in the Montreguey area, south of the city.

Many of the outages were small in the area, LeBlanc said, and each affected only a few customers, so crews would need to fix many outages to restore power to everyone.

In Montreal, there have been numerous reports of fallen trees. Quebec's transportation authority said weather conditions forced it to close the Victoria Bridge, which connects Montreal to its southern suburbs