Storm expected to delay, cancel flights through Toronto

A travel advisory has been issued for people flying into or out of Toronto's Pearson International Airport as a winter storm approaches southern Ontario. The storm, is expected to bring snow, wind and freezing rain, will move into the southwestern part of the province late Thursday and into the Toronto area by Friday morning. As much as 20 centimetres of snow could fall in and around Toronto, while the Ottawa region will likely see 5-10 cm. The bulk of the snow will fall in the Toronto area late Friday morning and early afternoon, tapering off in the late afternoon, said Karen Matthews, a meteorologist with the CBC News weather centre. "It's a fast-moving storm.… It will be gone by late Friday night, but it's going to be intense while it's here," she said.

Another storm could move into southern Ontario on Sunday, the third in a week, leaving the region with as much as 50 cm of snow.

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_{Bron: CBCNews}

Acht mensen vermist na lawine in Canada

In het westen van Canada worden vanochtend acht mensen vermist na een sneeuwlawine gisteren. Het gaat om een groep van zeven wandelaars en een persoon die hen ter hulp wilde snellen, meldt de Canadese politie.

Twee lawines
De zevenkoppige groep bevond zich in de regio rond Fernie, zo'n 300 kilometer ten zuiden van Calgary, nabij de Amerikaanse grens, toen ze na de middag werd verrast door een lawine. Vier andere wandelaars hoorden hulpgeroep en snelden de slachtoffers ter hulp. Ze konden één van de mannen van onder de sneeuw halen, maar werden daarbij op hun beurt verrast door een nieuwe lawine. Slechts drie van hen slaagden erin op tijd weg te komen.

Nieuwe zoekacties
Alle acht slachtoffers wonen in een dorp niet ver van de plaats van het ongeval. De federale politie startte vanochtend opnieuw zoekacties en maakt daarvoor gebruik van helikopters en honden. Dit weekend viel er in de bergachtige regio in het westen van Canada zo'n 70 centimeter sneeuw. Momenteel geldt in de streek een verhoogd risico op lawines.

_Bron:HLN.Be

Thousands still without power a day after Ontario, Quebec windstorm
Damaged transmission line delays repairs in Quebec

Thousands of people in Ontario and Quebec remained without power on Monday evening, a day after a weekend storm sent winds tearing through the region at up to 100 km/h and knocked trees onto power lines. More than 230,000 Hydro One customers in Ontario lost power during Sunday's storm, in addition to thousands more Hydro-Québec customers across the border. By 8:30 p.m. ET on Monday, power had been restored to more than half the powerless Hydro One customers, but 78,954 others were expected to spend the evening in the dark. The utility said it expected to have most power restored in most areas within another day or two, but those in remote locations might have to wait until Thursday or Friday. In Quebec, 32,000 customers were still without electricity by 4 p.m. Monday, mostly in the provincial capital region, Hydro-Québec reported.



Gusty winds broke this large tree branch in downtown Vancouver's Stanley Park. (Lisa Johnson/CBC)

Eastern Ontario hit hard
In Ontario, those in the eastern part of the province were the last to be hit by the powerful winds on Sunday, said Hydro One spokeswoman Danièle Gauvin Monday morning, after many people in that region awoke to find their alarm clocks and fridges dark and silent. Gauvin said some of the largest outages Monday were in the Bancroft region, east of Toronto, and in eastern centres including Fenelon Falls, Brockville, Arnprior and Trenton. She added that the utility had 10 helicopters out Monday to help assess and repair the damage. Other utilities have been enlisted to help restore power, but some homes might have to cope without electricity until Wednesday evening, especially in the Huntsville and Bracebridge areas. On Monday morning around 10 a.m., Ontario Provincial Police shut down a section of Highway 401 between Iroquois and Morrisburg, west of Cornwall, to help Hydro One restore power in the area. The highway had been closed in the same area for a few hours on Sunday afternoon, also due to downed power lines. Elsewhere the high winds knocked down trees, tore shingles off roofs and blew over a tractor-trailer on a highway north of Toronto. No injuries were reported. Environment Canada issued another wind warning for Monday night in the area south of Lake Huron and Georgian Bay as well as the Sault Ste. Marie region in northern Ontario.


Damaged transmission line causes problems in Quebec
Two-thirds of the homes and businesses to lose power in Quebec were in the Charlevoix region northeast of Quebec City. Hydro-Québec spokeswoman Hélène Laurin said crews are trying to pinpoint the source of the problem, which they believe is a damaged transmission line between the towns of Château-Richer and Baie Ste-Catherine. "There is a helicopter who left from Baie Comeau to try to locate the area where the outages could have occurred. Once we know exactly where it is located and the nature of this outage, we'll let people know the delay to get the power back," said Laurin. By late morning on Monday, Hydro-Québec had restored power to all but 600 remaining customers in Montreal. Laurin said it was still too early to tell when power in other regions would be back up. "Most of our clients will recover electricity by end of day today excluding the Laurentian region, the Outaouais region and Charlevoix region," said Laurin. Frances Abele-Kinloch, who lives in Cantley, Que., just north of Gatineau, said she has been without power since noon Sunday and Hydro-Québec now estimates the power won't be back until 5:15 p.m. on Monday. "We have water saved and we have a wood stove, so we're managing, but our big concern is the contents of our freezer, of course," she said. Sunday's windstorm also caused damage to several buildings in Montreal. The wind damaged a bus shelter, ripped the front off a store under construction and dislodged a glass panel from a building at Concordia University, causing it to crash to the ground. No one was injured in any of the incidents.

_{Bron: CBCNews} | Gewijzigd: 30 december 2008, 08:29 uur, door Marga

New B.C. avalanches claim 2 lives in 24 hours

Two men are dead after three avalanches in the past 24 hours at British Columbia's popular Whistler Blackcomb resort. The RCMP confirmed Thursday that a snowboarder from outside B.C. was killed Thursday in one of two avalanches on Whistler Mountain. On Wednesday, a Whistler man, 37, was killed in an avalanche on Blackcomb Mountain. His body was found Thursday morning. In both cases, the RCMP say, the men were in areas that had been marked off-limits due to dangerous snow conditions. "The problem is you've got tempting conditions with fresh snow on the other side of the boundary lines, and people are ducking the ropes to go into those areas," said RCMP Staff Sgt. Steve LeClair. "Those people are putting themselves at great risk, as is obvious by the tragedies that we've experienced in Whistler today." Police are advising people to stay within ski area boundaries as avalanche danger in the area is currently rated as "high." Amber Turnau of Whistler Blackcomb Ski resort said the most recent avalanches occurred simultaneously on Thursday afternoon One was on the "Little Whistler" ski run. Although the run was open, no one was trapped in the slide, she said.

Cellphone GPS used to find body

The other swept through an out-of-bounds area, killing the snowboarder, 23, who was out on the mountain by himself in an area known as Secret Chutes near the Symphony Bowl, according to RCMP. Whistler Mayor Ken Melamed said the RCMP told him a body was found on Blackcomb Mountain on Thursday morning. "The gentleman went missing, didn't return home last night, and a search was initiated this morning, and they recovered the body at about 9:30 a.m.[PT]," Melamed told the Canadian Press. Police worked with the missing skier's cell phone provider to make use of a GPS function on his phone to confirm that he was still on Blackcomb. His body was found in an area called Spanky's Ladder, which is currently closed to skiers because of an avalanche risk. Neither victim's name was released. Melamed said it's clear this season is particularly dangerous. "The particular conditions we have at the moment are not your normal coastal snowpack. It might be taking some of the skiers by surprise."

Increasing risk this weekend
The Whistler-area avalanches came just days after eight men were buried alive near Fernie in southeastern B.C. They were among 11 snowmobilers from nearby Sparwood, B.C., who were caught in back-to-back avalanches. Three men survived and left their friends behind after deciding it was too dangerous to stay. A public memorial will be held in Sparwood on Sunday. There are currently avalanche warnings in place for much of southern B.C., including both Whistler and Fernie. The Canadian Avalanche Centre issued an updated warning on Thursday, saying that a weak snow pack has created fragile conditions. The centre said clear skies forecast for the coming weekend will likely bring more people into the backcountry, increasing the risk that someone could be caught up in an avalanche.


_{Bron: CBC News}