Hundreds of thousands of customers lose power in Quebec as heavy rain hammers province
CTV
Nearly half a million households were in the dark Friday as remnants of Tropical Storm Debby wreaked havoc on southern Quebec.
Nearly half a million households were in the dark Friday as remnants of Tropical Storm Debby wreaked havoc on southern Quebec.
In Montreal, several roads were washed out, basements were flooded, and the city's light rail network, the REM, was completely shut down due to a power outage as heavy rainfall hammered the region.
Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) said more than 150 millimetres of rain had fallen as of 9 p.m., just as a rainfall warning for the area had ended. That broke the all-time daily record set in 1996.
Montreal gets an average 94 millimetres of rain during the entire month of August.
As of 10 p.m., Hydro-Quebec was reporting more than 460,000 customers lost electricity. The hardest hit areas were the Montérégie region (210,000), Montreal (75,000), and Laval (55,000).
The power utility said the outages were caused by wind gusts and fallen tree branches on the power grid during the powerful storm and crews were out in the field trying to restore power.
