One dead, thousands without power after Sandy hits Canada

One woman is dead and thousands of homes and businesses in Ontario and Quebec remain without power Tuesday morning after the eastern part of Canada was hit with the tail end of Hurricane Sandy.

In Toronto, a woman died Monday night after she was hit by a piece of flying debris in the city’s west end. The woman, who the Toronto Star said is believed to be in her 30s, died after a piece of a Staples sign came loose and struck her in a parking lot.

Also in Toronto, a fire on Queen Street West gutted a Roots store and the apartments above it. Though, officials said that strong winds were probably not the sole cause of the fire.

Not only were there downed branches to clean up on Tuesday morning, many in southern Ontario and Quebec also woke up without power.

In Toronto, Toronto Hydro dealt with thousands of power outages across the city. As of Tuesday morning, Toronto Hydro said it was still dealing with 45,000 outages. “Strong wind gusts clocked at more than 60 kilometres per hour brought down trees, branches and power lines across the city,” said a statement issued by the utility provider. Classes in at least 14 schools in Toronto were also cancelled Tuesday as a result of power outages.

Power outages were reported across southern Ontario, from Ottawa to Windsor and north towards the Georgian Bay. Hydro One reported that an additional 93,000 customers, excluding those in the Greater Toronto Area, were without power as of 5 a.m. Tuesday morning.

In Quebec, 48,000 homes and businesses were left without power, reports CBC News. About half of the affected customers were in the Laurentians.

By Tuesday morning, Environment Canada had lifted earlier wind warnings for southern Ontario, except for Sarnia in the far west part of the province, where wind gusts of up to 100 km/h were still expected.

Environment Canada also issued storm-surge and wind warnings for areas of area of southern Quebec along the St. Lawrence River, including Quebec City, on Tuesday morning.

The southern tip of New Brunswick and parts of Nova Scotia were also under wind and rainfall warnings Tuesday morning.

Air travel continued to be a problem at Canadian airports Tuesday, as flights into and out of eastern U.S. destinations were cancelled.