700,000 Canadians Still Lack Power After Storm

More than 280,000 Canadian homes and businesses--about 700,000 people--remained without power Sunday despite massive efforts by an army of workers to repair the devastating effects of the country’s worst ice storm in living memory.

In Quebec, worst hit by the blackout, 252,000 customers were waiting to be reconnected, and an official at the Hydro-Quebec utility said many would have to remain without power for a third week.

But in Montreal, Quebec’s nerve center and economic heartland, life was rapidly returning to normal after the deadly freezing rain that began two weeks ago toppled transmission towers and sent ice-laden branches tearing through local power lines.