On this Christmas Eve Saturday, the storm that has been raging in the country since Thursday evening continues to wreak havoc. Hundreds of thousands of Hydro-Quebec customers remain without power and many regions of the province are still subject to weather alerts. Fortunately, road conditions are beginning to improve.
Thousands of Quebecers risk spending Christmas without electricity. “Our goal is to have service restored tomorrow for the majority of affected customers,” Hydro-Québec said on Twitter Saturday morning. However, given the large number of breakdowns and places where it is necessary to intervene, it is certain that it will be impossible to restore service for all tomorrow. The work will take several days. »
Around 10 a.m., the state-owned company reported nearly 315,000 homes, businesses and other customers still without power since the day before. No region of Quebec was spared by these power outages. The hardest hit region remained the Capitale-Nationale with 68,981 Hydro-Quebec subscribers without power at the time these lines were written.
The other regions most affected are Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean (40,298 customers), Montérégie (36,925 customers), Laurentides (21,920 customers) and Mauricie (23,620 customers). Added to this are the Côte-Nord (29,376 customers) and the Bas-Saint-Laurent (22,249 customers) where the storm raged during the night.
In a press conference late Friday afternoon, the executive vice-president of Hydro-Québec Éric Filion indicated that the objective was to “reconnect the majority of subscribers for Sunday evening”, that is Christmas Eve. Hydro-Québec will again provide an update on the outage situation around 11:00 a.m. Saturday.
Regions still on the alert
Almost all areas north of the St. Lawrence River are still subject to winter storm warnings from Environment Canada. Gusts of up to 70 km/h are also expected throughout the south of the province.
Some areas further north will also experience more precipitation and blowing snow. This is particularly the case in Jamésie, where the community of Waskaganish is subject to a storm warning including 15 to 20 centimeters of snow.
Road conditions are improving
Some roads that were closed to traffic on Friday are beginning to reopen. This is the case of routes 175 and 169, which provide the link between Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean and the Capitale-Nationale region by crossing the Laurentides wildlife reserve.
Further north, in the Chibougameau region, for example, the Quebec 511 website still reports “presence of snow blades” and reduced visibility on Route 167.
Ferry routes that had been disrupted are also gradually resuming. The Tadoussac – Baie-Sainte-Catherine ferry now departs every 60 minutes since Saturday morning, despite the “difficult” weather conditions, indicates Quebec 511.
In eastern Quebec, however, the situation remains complicated. The Rivière-du-Loup — Saint-Siméon, Matane — Baie-Comeau, Matane — Godbout and L’Isle-aux-Grues-Montmagny connections are all canceled for the day.
The storm also continues to cause delays at airports across the country.
For those who want to take the roads of the province to join their families for New Year’s Eve, but who do not have a car, Communauto announced Saturday morning that its service was restored, after experiencing a service outage on Friday.
With The Canadian Press