Winds and rain batter Quebec

Prime Minister needs ATV to get to his Gatineau Hills residence

MONTREAL — About 150,000 Hydro-Quebec customers remained without electricity as of late Monday afternoon after strong winds and heavy rain caused havoc with the province’s power grid.

The utility said the intense depression coming from New England hit several areas, as winds of 90 km/h caused branches and trees to knock down power lines.

Some 300 linemen were working to fix problems in every part of the province — the hardest hit as of 4 p.m. being Monteregie south of Montreal, where more than 29,000 were without electricity.

Other areas badly affected were the Laurentians north of Montreal and the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean a few hundred kilometres north of Quebec City.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also had to deal with the bad weather in Quebec on his way to work Monday. His office said there was some flooding on the street outside Trudeau’s residence in the Gatineau Hills near Meech Lake.

A spokesperson said that, in order to reach a street that wasn’t flooded, Trudeau had to use an all-terrain vehicle and travel through some back roads. Trudeau couldn’t get to the motorcade that usually brings him into Ottawa, which is normally about an hour’s drive away, the spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, Environment Canada meteorologist Ian Hubbard said there were wind warnings across Nova Scotia, P.E.I., and for parts of New Brunswick and western Newfoundland by Monday afternoon.

Halifax International Airport reported wind gusts up to 76 km/h as the system headed east across Atlantic Canada.

DARREN CALABRESE, THE CANADIAN PRESS A woman shields herself from the rain while walking in downtown in Halifax. High winds moved from Quebec to Atlantic Canada Monday.

JUSTIN TANG, THE CANADIAN PRESS A car sits in the flooded parking lot across from the Ottawa River following a rain storm in Ottawa on Monday.