Power out, highways closed during blowing snow
Tens of thousands of customers are without power and parts of Highway 401 were closed Tuesday morning as blasts of blowing snow hit the Ottawa-Gatineau area.
A wind warning left over from Monday in southern Prince Edward County about morning gusts up to 100 km/h.
Communities near the St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario could see gusts around 80 km/h Tuesday morning, according to a special weather statement.
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A different statement for Ottawa and communities ranging from Westport to Hawkesbury warns of morning blasts of snow in gusts up to 70 km/h.
Snow squall warnings for the Outaouais ended by 9:30 a.m.
About 56,000 local customers were without power as of 10 a.m., according to Hydro One, Ottawa and Québec. There are no significant outages under Utilities Kingston.
Westbound Highway 401 is closed because of crashes from Palace Road to Centre Street in the Napanee area.
The eastbound 401 was closed near Odessa until around 10:30 a.m. because of what Ontario's transportation ministry (MTO) describes as "road conditions."
Previous crash around Sydenham Road in Kingston and around Gananoque have also been cleared away.
Around 7:30 a.m. the MTO listed much of Highway 15 and Highway 401 near Kingston as snow-covered, with poor visibility. Parts of highways 7 and 416 were partly snow covered.
Quebec said the same for highways 5, 50 and 148 in and around Gatineau.
No local school bus agencies cancelled service Tuesday.
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This article was originally published for CBC News.