The lack of hot water, heating and batteries causes many worries for families without electricity. But already, many are showing solidarity on social networks.
“It’s really not funny,” says Kimberley, a young mother from Valleyfield on the phone. She was at home with her 11-month-old son on Wednesday when the lights went out a little after noon. “It was the worst case scenario, my boy already had a virus, so it’s really not easy. »
At the beginning of the afternoon, his Internet network dropped. A few hours later, it was his cellular network. At first, she wasn’t too worried, because her boyfriend still had electricity at work, which was reassuring. But at home, the ambient temperature was dropping rapidly. Hot water, which she badly needed to bathe the baby who had diarrhoea, was rationed.
She thought about leaving to seek refuge in the warm, but her family lives more than an hour away and she was afraid to go out on the icy streets. “I didn’t want to take the chance of slipping with the baby or having an accident,” she says. And she still had hope that the electricity would come back soon.
To feed her son, Kimberley warmed the bottle as much as possible between her breasts. The night was difficult. They slept together, warmly dressed with a tuque on their head, but they were still cold. “We had the tip of our nose frozen,” she says. On Friday morning she used up the last drops of hot water to give baby another bath and the house was freezing. She had to face the facts: another solution had to be found.
His boyfriend therefore took their son to his parents in the Laurentians. For her part, she had to take the dog to the vet, where she finally had access to a cellular network, during which time The duty was able to reach her. She was still reluctant to try to limit the damage at home – the fridge is thawed and water is leaking everywhere – and go join her boyfriend and son in the Laurentians. “If it hasn’t come back during the day, I’m going to join them,” she concludes.
On the ground | Damage to La Fontaine Park
Disabled children
Nathalie Huard, she was worried Thursday noon to have almost no batteries on her cell. A 25-year-old mother of twins with cerebral palsy, she lost power late Wednesday afternoon. “With disabled children, it’s less coolshe confides in an interview with Duty. I can’t give them much care, hot water is calculated. »
On Friday morning, she took her food to her cousin’s to avoid losing the contents of her fridge. But there remains the problem of heating. “It’s getting cold,” she says. I bundled the kids up in blankets. Like many teenagers and adults, her twins are starting to get “grumpy” because they’ve run out of batteries on their electronic devices, she adds.
Nathalie also has to find a solution for her children, because she has to go to work. Normally, she prepares supper in advance and they are self-sufficient enough to manage without her. But today is different. “I can’t leave them alone at home in the dark,” she sighs.
She called the children’s father to take over, but since he has no electricity either, they are looking for a solution. “We are looking at the option of going to the hotel”, sums up Nathalie.
Solidarity
In neighborhood groups on Facebook and elsewhere, a movement of solidarity is set in motion as several offers and requests circulate. “For mothers close to the Jolicoeur metro station, who need access to electricity to work, charge or otherwise, we have room with us”, writes for example a “mother from Lasalle”.
On “Rosemont, our neighborhood”, another Internet user opens his door to “neighbors for whom the breakdown is prolonged”. They can come and take a shower, charge their cell phone, have a coffee, or take advantage of the wifi to work. In comments, several people follow the initiative by giving their postal code to locate them.
Another directs parents to an organization on Dandurand Street that has started distributing its frozen meals, which it must sell quickly because it does not have a working freezer.
Roxane Major says she helped her neighbors cut down fallen branches in their driveway. She lacked electricity herself and had brought her children to a friend’s house, so that they “stay warm”, she specifies.
Read — and charge your devices — warm
There was a crowd on Thursday afternoon at the Grande Bibliothèque de Montréal, especially on the children’s floor.
“We haven’t had electricity at home since last night. Daycare and school are closed. We came here because it was getting cold, there was no light and the children were bored at home,” explains Thierry, who was taking advantage of his visit to recharge his computer and his cell phone. “We will stay until the charge is complete, otherwise there is no way to follow the news to know the evolution of the situation. »
A little further on, Clémence, a mother from Rosemont, taps away on her laptop. She has been here for several hours already, looking for some warmth and, above all, a way to entertain her three children. Next to the stack of books chosen by the kids, a small gray suitcase contains the children’s pajamas, toothbrushes and some personal effects. She didn’t know yet if she was going to go home at the end of the day or go to her sister-in-law’s. “I don’t know what I’m going to do yet, we’re going from hour to hour…”