MONTREAL — A 75-year-old man died Friday after running his generator in his garage during a blackout, the third death attributed to a vicious storm that coated parts of southern Quebec and eastern Ontario in ice this week.
The man's wife found him unconscious in their garage in Saint-Joseph-du-Lac, Que., on Friday morning, and he died after being taken to hospital in St-Eustache, said Insp. Jean-Philippe Labbé of Lake-of-Two-Mountains Police.
Quebec Premier Francois Legault said residents should be careful before bringing outdoor appliances inside.
"I understand that many people use generators, but they must be located at a safe distance from the homes. It emits gases so people need to be very careful with the devices they bring inside their homes or close to their homes," Legault said.
The premier initially said the man died after bringing a barbecue inside in St-Eustache, Que., but police said that was a misunderstanding.
Earlier Friday, Montreal's health authority said dozens of people suffered from carbon monoxide poisoning after using outdoor appliances inside during the blackout that stretched into a third day for hundreds of thousands of Quebecers.
"In the last few hours, we have received about 60 reports of poisonings, an exceptional situation. The situation is particularly worrying in the districts of Lasalle, Montreal-North, Saint-Laurent, Ahuntsic and Pierrefonds," the Regional Directorate of Public Health said in a press release on Friday afternoon.
"These poisonings are putting pressure on emergency rooms, some of which have an occupancy rate of over 200 per cent."
Legault announced the latest death while touring Les Coteaux, Que., where another man died while attempting to cut down tree branches on his property on Thursday.
Provincial police have said that man was struck by one of the branches and died at the scene.
Meanwhile, Ontario Provincial Police confirmed Friday that another man died on Wednesday after he, too, was struck by a falling tree branch at his home in South Stormont, Ont.
Fallen branches still littered some Montreal streets on Friday, with crews working in strong winds to clear them away.
Heavy ice — in some cases up to 25 millimetres of it, according to Environment Canada — sent the branches crashing onto power lines, streets and cars on Wednesday.
Gijo Nassif, who lives about a half-hour from downtown Montreal, is among the thousands still without electricity, though he said he's been able to take refuge at his fiancée's apartment where there's still power.
"But unfortunately, I’ve had to throw out most of my fridge and freezer contents. And my house is operating at too low temperatures, and with freezing temperatures tonight, it might be dangerous for the pipes,” Nassif said in an interview.
Nassif said his uncle and aunt and their four young children, who also live in the area, are also in the dark.
"I think this could have been avoided had Quebec spent its money better on preventive measures for its power network, knowing full well the weather climate we get here. But as usual, money seems to be very mismanaged around here,” he said.
Quebec Energy Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon was on the defensive during a Friday morning news conference, saying upgrades to the power system helped keep major Hydro-Québec infrastructure intact during the storm.
"The strategic assets of Hydro-Québec have all been maintained. In '98, (it was) a different issue, thanks to the investment that was made," he said, referring to a storm 25 years ago that knocked out power to millions.
But still, he said, Wednesday's storm constituted a crisis.
"The last to be restored could be Sunday or Monday, but under the circumstances, I think we need to be satisfied with that," he said.
In the city of Chateauguay, in the Montérégie region south of Montreal, thousands were dealing with both power outages and flooding due to the storm.
Mayor Éric Allard said about 250 homes were flooded, but the city's fire department was able to pump the water out of the basements.
"This situation is settled at the moment, unless more houses get flooded, which I doubt. The river level is high but stable. It is not dangerous at the moment,” Allard said.
Maxime Nadeau, director of energy system control at Hydro-Québec, said 1,400 crew members are working through the long weekend to restore power.
"The weather situation we are monitoring today are … wind gusts of 70 kilometres per hour that maybe could generate more outages," he said during the news conference.
In Montreal on Friday evening, Hydro-Québec's outage tracker said about 198,000 customers were without power, along with roughly3,500 in Lanaudière, 9,000 in the Laurentides andjust under 30,000 in Outaouais.
Meanwhile, the City of Ottawa has opened multiple recreational complexes for the approximately 5,000 residents who remained without power as of 8 p.m. Showers and places to charge phones and other devices are being made available, the city said.
It is asking residents to be cautious as crews work to remove hundreds of downed trees. The city said it has received more than 1,800 requests about trees that are hazardous following Wednesday's storm.
Hydro Ottawa said it likely won't be able to restore power to everyone affected until at least Saturday evening.
This is the second time in less than a year that Ottawa has faced a multi-day power outage affecting thousands of residents due to extreme weather.
In May 2022 it took more than two weeks to restore power to everyone in the city after a deadly derecho wind storm.
Further afield, Ontario utility Hydro One said its crews were working to turn the lights back on for nearly 32,000 customers.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 7, 2023.
—with files from Nicole Thompson in Toronto and Mia Rabson in Ottawa.
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This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta and Canadian Press News Fellowship.
Marisela Amador, The Canadian Press
