By Darren Calabrese
HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Dozens of flights were canceled and thousands of people were left without power in Eastern Canada on Thursday as the region felt the early impact of a massive storm arriving from the United States.
More than 17,000 businesses and homes were without electricity in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, according to the Nova Scotia Power website. Most departing and arriving flights were cancelled or delayed at Halifax Stanfield airport.
In Montreal, 85 flights were cancelled on Thursday because of snowstorms affecting airports in Canada's so-called "Maritime" provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island and through much of the Eastern United States, an airport spokeswoman said.
"For the Maritimes, it is a cocktail of precipitation and strong winds," Environment Canada meteorologist Jean-Philippe Begin said by phone.
The fast-developing storm bringing high winds and heavy snowfall has been dubbed by forecasters as a "weather bomb," a "bombogenesis" or "bomb cyclone." Wind speeds of up to 110 kilometers (68 miles) an hour are expected in some parts of the Maritimes, Begin said, and the storm will also dump up to 50 centimeters (20 inches) of snow in areas of Eastern Quebec.