Schools closed, more than 100,000 lose electricity as snow falls in Quebec

Service is slowly being restored to homes in Quebec after nearly 25 cm of snow fell across the province. 

At its peak, about 114,000 Hydro-Quebec customers lost power.

As of 12:45 p.m., just over 70,000 homes remain without service.

"We know that Montreal has been hit by more than 25 cm of snow," said Philippe Sabourin, a spokesperson for the city. "For today, our main concern is to plow the snow away and add salt, little rocks on those roads."

Montreal is among the hardest hit in terms of snow, and Environment Canada predicts another few centimetres could still fall.

"Snowfall with total amounts of 20 to 30 cm is expected," according to a severe weather alert by the agency. "Rapidly accumulating snow will make travel difficult. There may be a significant impact on rush hour traffic in urban areas. Heavy snowfall accumulation may cause tree branches to break."

According to Hydro-Quebec, the regions with the most outages as of 12:45 p.m. include the Montérégie (35,660) and Eastern Townships (29,122).

In Montreal, 2,994 homes are without power.

Sabourin says the priority is to clear the main streets used by hospitals and public transit, as well as major roads and residential areas.

"We have to do the job on a network composed of 6,000 km of sidewalk and 4,000 km of street," he said. "We cannot be everywhere at the same time. We have to go one street after another."

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The snowfall is expected to stop by the end of the day Monday.

The weather for the rest of the week is expected to be sunny but cold.

• IN PHOTOS: Blanket of snow covers Montreal
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SCHOOL CLOSURES

• Eastern Townships School Board (all schools and centres, no daycare)
• Centre académique Fournier (elementary and high school)
• École de l'Archipel (no daycare)
• École Gabrielle-Roy (no daycare)
• École Marie-Anne
• École Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption (no daycare)
• École de la Rive (no daycare)
• École Saint-Jean-Baptiste (no daycare)
• Formation générale aux adultes, édifice d'Abbotsford
• Formation générale aux adultes, édifice Châteauguay
• Joliette Elementary and High School (daycare is open)
• Rawdon Elementary School (daycare is open)
• Rotiwennakehte Elementary School
• Ratihen:te High School
• Vanguard School