Blizzard leaves 100,000 without power in Canada

More than 100,000 homes and businesses were without power Saturday in Quebec after a powerful winter storm battered the French-speaking Canadian province, the local utility company said.

Heavy snow weighed down branches, causing some to fall and damage power lines, Etat Hydro-Quebec said in a statement on their web site.

In other cases, heavy winds brought down power lines and damaged equipment, and made it difficult for repair crews to get out to restore power.

The company said "more than 100,000 clients are without power" after Friday's storm as of 9:15 am local time (1415 GMT), adding that most of the outages were in the regions of Laurentians, Lanaudiere and Outaouais.

It did not say when they thought the power might be restored.

According to Quebec media, snow continued to pile up in several parts of the province Saturday morning.

Winter storm warnings were still in effect in much of the province, including the western regions of Abitibi-Temiscamingue and Outaouais, the central Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, and Cote-Nord, a large region in the north.

At least 60 centimeters (two feet) of snow had fallen Friday in parts of the province, especially north of the Saint-Laurent River. Many schools had been shut down and roads closed to traffic.