Hydro-Quebec can't say when service will be restored after major snowfall

About 5,000 homes are still without electricity Tuesday after Quebec experienced its first major snowfall of the season as Hydro-Quebec crews worked Tuesday to restore power.

At its peak, some 114,000 homes were affected.

Most of those residences still affected are in the Montérégie region, with 1,136 customers in the dark, and the Eastern Townships, where 2,455 customers still had no power as of 9:30 p.m. 

IN PHOTOS: Blanket of snow in Montreal

In Montreal, 1,102 customers are still without power.

"The passage of a weather system over part of Quebec continues to leave heavy snow on the wires," said Hydro-Quebec. "This snow breaks branches and trees which come into contact with the power grid, causing power outages."

As of 3 p.m., more than 90 per cent of affected customers were reconnected, said the utility, but there are new outages in some places. Hydro-Quebec said the "vast majority" of customers will have their power restored by the end of the day.

"Teams are being relocated from less-affected regions to speed up service restoration," Hydro-Quebec notes.