On Wednesday afternoon, hours before the first seder of Passover, the power started to go out in homes across Montreal.

“We knew the weather was going to be all over the place for Pesach but I didn’t really check the specifics,” said Mettannah Jacobson, a Montreal resident.

There was an ice storm on Wednesday morning and Jacobson said it took her 20 minutes to scrape the ice off her car. As she was driving home on Wednesday afternoon, she noticed the street lights were out.

“We’re getting ready for Pesach and people start sending messages that the power is going out on this street, the power is out on that street,” she said.

At this point, Jacobson said the ice storm began to get even worse. She checked the Hydro-Quebec website and saw that many areas in Montreal were losing power.

“The lights started to flicker and at 4 p.m.… a few hours before candle-lighting, the power goes out completely.”

She said they lost electricity, Wi-Fi, heat and there was barely any cellular data.

“We’re hearing from people that they don’t have power, we’re hearing and seeing all these old tree branches falling because there was so much freezing rain and it’s putting so much weight on the trees that it’s ripping the branches down and pulling the power lines down with it,” she said.

According to a statement from Hydro-Quebec, over 1 million people were affected by the ice storms in several regions of Quebec. In some areas, there was up to 30 mm of ice, causing trees or large branches to fall on the electricity distribution grid.

Jacobson and the family she was staying with in De Vimy, a Montreal neighbourhood, started to put tea lights around the house but it began to get very cold as temperatures dipped below -3 Celsius.

“It felt apocalyptic, no one was out, the streets were empty. We didn’t know when it was going to end,” she said.

Like many families across Montreal, they did the first seder wearing multiple layers of clothes.

“It was really cold and the kids especially were freezing. We sat together for warmth,” said Jacobson.

On the second night of Passover, the group Chaverim Rockland, an emergency services organization made up of volunteers in New York, received an urgent call from Chaverim Montreal about the thousands of people still without power including seniors and children, according to the Yeshiva World website.

The Rockland Chaverim members began loading a truck with dozens of generators, heaters, electrical cords and gas tanks to send over the border to Canada.

Two non-Jewish members of its patrol drove the truck to Albany and it was handed over to the Chaverim of Montreal members who brought the supplies to people in need.

“People are really rallying together to take care of the community,” said Jacobson. “It has been really amazing to see.”

Before the holiday, Rabbi Saul Emanuel, executive director of the Jewish Community Council of Montreal started a fund for families who needed assistance to buy food and supplies for Passover.

“During the power outage, many people lost their food that they were barely able to afford for themselves,” Rabbi Emanuel said in an interview with The CJN.

The Montreal JCC decided to increase the fundraising efforts to help families replace their spoiled food and purchase supplies for the rest of the holidays.

“We have this fundraising effort from the entire spectrum of the community,” said Rabbi Emanuel.  “Everyone is getting together, unified and trying to do what they can. The more help the better.”

By Tuesday afternoon, April 11, the appeal had raised over $150,000, according to the JCC website. Food vouchers had been distributed to 130 families.

In a statement on April 10, Hydro Quebec said 95 percent of impacted customers have returned to power, with some complex cases left to resolve.