Thousands of Canadian soldiers, police and firefighters searched door to door yesterday for people huddled in their homes against bitter cold, as fears mounted that many could freeze to death in Quebec's nine-day power blackout.
As temperatures of 18 C were pushed even lower by brisk winds, authorities expressed concern that residents of the hardest-hit Monteregie region south of Montreal were in danger of succumbing to hypothermia. Some 10,000 of the 14,600 Canadian soldiers mobilised in Canada's largest ever disaster recovery effort were given special powers to act as unarmed peace officers in more than 120 communities in Monteregie, where 900,000 people remained without electricity.
That area was likely to be blacked out for at least another week as Canadian and US utility crews battled to make emergency repairs to the devastated grid.
The Quebec government sought the army's help in ensuring safety and to assist police searching for people suffering in the cold. Many of those worst affected have been cut off from TV and radio broadcasts of emergency measures.
In Ottawa the Canadian Defence Minister, Mr Art Eggleton, said the troops would help reassure people that it was safe to leave their unheated homes to seek shelter.
"This will give them a sense that their neighbourhood, their homes are going to be watched by our troops," he said.
In St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, a town of 35,000 people, 180 cadets from the Quebec Police Academy also were patrolling deserted streets, marking doors with green chalk to indicate that no one was inside. "There are people who hide when we arrive because they do not want to leave, often because they have pets," a cadet said.
Mr Guy Langlais expected to be able to remain in his home. "We have a generator and a fireplace and we are using 12-volt batteries to power lighting," he said.
At least 2,000 residents were crowded into emergency shelters and more were expected last night after a closed military college was reopened.
Other victims heeded the repeated pleas of the Canadian Prime Minister, Mr Jean Chretien, and the Quebec Premier, Mr Lucien Bouchard, to go to shelters or stay with relatives and friends outside the region who still had power. Some people drove in from outlying areas to invite strangers to stay with them.
El Nino finally hit northern California with drenching rains and coastal floods that snarled traffic and raised fears of mudslides in hilly areas over the weekend. Meteorologists said the region was likely to receive more rough weather. - (Reuters)