By Canadian Press

Hydro-Québec says some ice storm power outages will not be fixed before Tuesday

Apr 9, 2023 | 11:55 AM

MONTREAL — Another 50,000 Hydro-Québec customers should see their power restored by end of day on Sunday, the utility said while warning some of its remaining repairs to lines damaged by last week’s deadly ice storm may not be completed until Tuesday.

Around 114,000 Hydro-Québec clients remain without power after Wednesday’s storm, which covered trees and branches in a coat of ice that brought many to the ground. Those customers in the dark include approximately 80,000 in Montreal, Régis Tellier, the utility’s vice-president of operations and maintenance, told reporters Sunday morning. 

He said hydro has restored power to over 90 per cent of the more than one million customers who lost electricity — including 180,000 who saw the lights come back on Saturday.

“The goal is to reconnect 95 per cent today, by the end of the day, and then on Monday, almost all the remaining customers,” Tellier said. 

But he said some complex cases won’t be resolved until Tuesday.

Community support

The Hunger Games return to Prince Albert

1h ago

Raiders win 5-3

Defensive scoring leads Raiders over Wheat Kings

8h ago

GST Holiday

Federal government's two-month GST holiday begins

Dec 14, 2024

Tellier said 1,500 hydro workers are on the ground, with about 40 per cent in the hardest-hit areas in and around Montreal.

But most of the remaining outages are small and affect only a handful of customers, he said, noting hydro workers are reconnecting fewer customers even though they’re working at the same pace.

“It’s the same effort, but it’s few customers, sometimes it’s five, 10 customers,” he said.

Tellier said he witnessed just such an example on Saturday when he went to see some crews at work. At one specific outage in Baie-D’Urfé, Que., an on-island suburb of Montreal, two crews with two cranes were needed to remove branches on a line and reconnect two homes. 

He said crews often have to secure branches to prevent them from falling on people as they work. 

Tellier said that to his knowledge, all seniors residences and long-term care homes that lost power have now been reconnected. 

The province has announced grocery stores in particularly affected regions can remain open on Easter Sunday — a statutory holiday — to help residents running low on food after the blackout. Those regions include Montreal, Montérégie, Laval, Outaouais, Laurentides and Lanaudière.

The storm and its aftermath have been linked to three deaths, including that of a 75-year-old Quebec man who died from carbon monoxide poisoning after running a generator in his garage. Two other men — one in Ontario and one in Quebec — were killed after being struck by branches.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 9, 2023.

Jacob Serebrin, The Canadian Press