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TORONTO, Dec. 23 (AP) – A major winter storm battered Ontario and Quebec on Friday, prompting widespread flight cancellations and school closures and knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of customers on Friday , Environment Canada meteorologists are warning of a possible storm – a once-in-a-decade weather event.
Environment Canada is forecasting strong winds, heavy snow and possible rapid freezing, and has issued a winter storm warning for much of Ontario and Quebec.
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“We probably only see one of these storms every five or 10 years,” said Environment Canada meteorologist Mitch Meredith. “I’ve only seen a couple of these in the past 20 years. “
Rain turned to heavy snow in parts of southern Ontario on Friday, and there could be lightning or sudden icing, creating dangerous driving conditions, Environment Canada said.
Ontario Provincial Police closed Highway 401 west of London Friday morning after reports of multiple collisions. Meanwhile, strong winds began to wreak havoc on provincial utilities. Hydro Quebec said the outage affected more than 225,000 customers.
Hydro One, Ontario’s largest utility, said about 45,000 customers were without power as of 11 a.m.
Hydro Ottawa said 25,000 customers were without power, mostly due to outages at branch offices. In Quebec, heavy snow, heavy rain and strong winds are expected in many areas.
The storm has disrupted holiday travel plans for thousands as airlines pre-emptively canceled flights and more disruptions were expected.
WestJet, Canada’s second-largest carrier, announced late Thursday that it was canceling flights at airports in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia. The airline announced Friday that it is canceling 300 “active” flights in B.C., southern Ontario and Quebec due to bad weather. That brings the airline’s total number of cancellations since Monday to 1,196, according to an emailed statement.
Air Canada said Friday it has canceled “some flights” in Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto, including all flights from the island airport in downtown Toronto, citing the storm, reduced airport capacity and operational restrictions.
Rob Milton, who was traveling with his wife, said their flight from Toronto’s Pearson Airport to Quebec was canceled Friday morning, putting a major dent in the couple’s plans to celebrate Christmas in Quebec City.
“We had a hotel reservation in Quebec; we had to cancel it. We had restaurants; we had to cancel those. We planned the whole weekend,” he said at the airport.
Daniel Araya, who traveled from Chile to Vancouver with his family, was stranded in Pearson after the race was delayed due to weather.
“We’re really hoping for a Christmas miracle,” he said. “It took us a lot of time to get here and it would be very sad if we couldn’t go to Vancouver to see my sister.”
The Toronto Transit Commission has suspended 41 bus stops in hilly areas that are difficult to navigate under snowy and icy conditions. GO Transit, which serves the Greater Toronto Area and the Hamilton area, has canceled express trains and reduced peak-hour train service. (Associated Press)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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