Winter storm cancels flights, closes schools in Canada
TORONTO (AP) — A major winter storm hitting Ontario and Quebec on Friday caused widespread flight cancellations and school closures, and knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of customers on Friday, with an Environment Canada meteorologist warning of a possible once-in-a-decade weather event.
Environment Canada predicted strong winds, heavy snowfall and possible flash freezing, issuing winter storm warnings for the vast majority of Ontario and Quebec.
“We may only see one of these storms every five or 10 years,” said Environment Canada meteorologist Mitch Meredith. “I’ve only seen a couple of storms like this in the last 20 years.”
Environment Canada said flash, or sudden, freezes were likely as rain turned to heavy snow on Friday in parts of southern Ontario, creating dangerous driving conditions.
Ontario Provincial Police shut down Highway 401 west of London on Friday morning after reporting multiple collisions. Meanwhile, strong winds began to wreak havoc on provincial utilities. Hydro Quebec said outages were affecting more than 225,000 customers.
Hydro One, Ontario’s largest electricity utility, said roughly 45,000 customers were without power as of 11 a.m. Hydro Ottawa said 25,000 customers were without power, mainly due to branches downing wires. In Quebec, many regions were expected to receive a mix of heavy snow, rain and strong winds.
The storm upended holiday travel plans for thousands of people as airlines preemptively canceled flights, with more disruptions expected.
WestJet, Canada’s second largest airline, announced late Thursday that it was canceling flights at airports in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia. It announced 300 “proactive” flight cancellations on Friday for B.C., southern Ontario and Quebec due to the bad weather. That brought the...
