Nearly 132,000 customers were without power Tuesday morning in Quebec while the balance sheet in Ontario rose to 220,000, in the wake of violent storms on Saturday.
At the worst of the storm, 550,000 Hydro-Quebec customers were without power. Tuesday morning, the majority of outages were still in the Laurentians region where the toll, around 10:30 a.m., amounted to just over 71,000 subscribers without electricity, compared to just over 33,000 in Lanaudière and just over 25,000 in the Outaouais.
“The majority of customers should find the service today” according to the Hydro-Quebec Twitter account which estimates “that after tomorrow there will be around 30,000 customers for whom the work could take longer. »
Some 700 teams are on the ground Tuesday, including teams of contractors who have come to lend a hand to those of Hydro-Québec.
The task is complicated for Hydro-Québec, as the line of violent storms hit a strip of territory 300 kilometers long by 100 kilometers wide, a scale rarely seen, according to the vice-president of operations and maintenance. at Hydro-Quebec, Régis Tellier.
He explained on Monday that the winds and gusts “have revolved around 150, 160 km / h” and that with winds of such velocity, “the infrastructure does not hold”.
Mr. Tellier then explained that not only can the wires be dangerous, but that transformers that fall to the ground contain oils that must be avoided.
10 victims in Ontario and Quebec
In Ontario, a tenth victim was added yesterday to the toll of violent storms in the two provinces.
It is a 61-year-old man from Lakefield, Ont., who died when a tree fell during the storm, according to Peterborough police.
So far, there have been nine deaths in Ontario and one in Quebec.
187 poles collapsed in Ottawa
As of Tuesday morning, Hydro Ottawa reported that about 74,000 customers were still without power, while provincial utility Hydro One had more than 148,000 customers still affected by outages.
In the nation’s capital, Hydro Ottawa general manager Bryce Conrad said Monday that his distribution system had been “crushed,” noting that the 187 poles that collapsed during the storm not only exceed the number that usually collapses in a year, but it’s also higher than the number that fell during the 1998 ice storm and the 2018 tornadoes.
The vice-president of operations and maintenance at Hydro-Québec, Régis Tellier, also indicated on Monday that this storm has nothing to do with what we are used to, even during episodes of ice: “We are used to seeing branches, pieces of tree, but these are really trunks, 50, 60 centimeters. He added that the chaos also makes it difficult to access blackout sites as roads are still blocked. “And even when we reconnect the main arteries, we will discover other places (broken)”, added Mr. Tellier.
He said Monday the teams were on the ground to rebuild. “We are going to plant poles, iron wires. This is really our priority for the day: to be able to restore the greatest number of customers as quickly as possible. »
The Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Jonatan Julien, said he believed, Monday at a press conference, that the restoration of service to customers who will always be in the dark once they reach 80% of restored subscribers risks be longer: “We are entering into more major work for recovery. So the further you go, the more difficult it is to get additional clients for recovery. »
“For the rest, it will be a little longer because we are at the end of the line with more major work. »
Régis Tellier abounded in the same direction: “Here, in the Hautes-Laurentides, we really enter very wooded environments, very complex, sometimes in back lots, behind houses. There are swimming pools that have been affected, sometimes owner equipment. You have to be able to release that to have access. »
Both Minister Julien and Mr. Tellier recalled that it is important not to approach electrical wires that have fallen to the ground and to let their teams work.
For those without power, disaster service centers are open in areas that have been impacted by severe storms.
Strong winds were recorded in several places, in particular on Lake Memphremagog with gusts of up to 151 km/h, in Trois-Rivières with peaks at 96 km/h and in Gatineau up to 90 km/h, late Saturday afternoon.