Winter - Alice Cooper :)

The region may receive up to 15 more centimetres before a let-up to what Environment Canada terms "significant snowfalls of historic proportions."

The snow and strong winds of up to 90 kilometres an hour have caused snow-laden branches to snap onto power lines, causing power outages from Port Colborne to Fort Erie, and forcing part of the Queen Elizabeth Way to be shut down

The storm that dumped snow on the Fort Erie-Welland areas also walloped Buffalo and western New York state, leaving more than 40 centimetres of snow.

More than 155,000 customers are without electricity and utility officials say it could be well into next week before all power is restored.

Snowsqualls coming off Lake Huron also left parts of Ontario’s Bruce Peninsula, Parry Sound and other cottage country areas covered in snow. Another 10 centimetres of snow might fall this morning before it changes to showers.

Northern Ontario also received an early introduction to winter, with an additional five centimetres expected today in some areas, including Kenora, Fort Frances, Dryden and Red Lake.

In Huntsville, Ontario Provincial Police have closed down southbound Highway 11, south of Stephenson Rd. 4 after a vehicle went into the ditch, killing one person inside at about 5 a.m., Const. Julia McCuaig said.

"The road conditions up there were very poor at the time. It was sever weather conditions ... Roads were icy," she said. "Apparently in Bracebridge, it’s clear. It’s just when you go just north of that, you hit the severe weather conditions."

The man, whose identity is being without until police can notify his next of kin, was alone in the vehicle at the time. No one else was injured.

More of those same conditions and "zero visibility” has closed down Fort Erie-bound Queen Elizabeth Way at Netherby Rd. in Niagara Falls where the weather has knocked out power in part of the region, McCuaig said.

"We have to be sure to be careful out there today - that’s the main thought."

Yesterday, winter weather may have claimed its first victim of the season in the province when a 27-year-old woman was killed in a head-on collision south of London.

Langton resident Jaclyn Szalkai was driving south on Concession Rd. 2 in Norfolk County, near the north shores of Lake Erie, when the collision occurred just after 2 p.m.

Szalkai lost control of her van, crossed the centre line and collided head-on with a Dodge pick-up truck driven by a 22-year-old Langton man, OPP said.

"A snow (or) slush covered road is being considered a contributing factor in this collision," OPP said.

Szalkai was pronounced dead at nearby Tillsonburg District Memorial Hospital. The driver of the other vehicle sustained non life-threatening injuries and has been released from hospital, police said.