(Montreal) Some 21,000 Hydro-Québec customers are still in the dark. About 95% of homes have regained electricity since Wednesday’s ice storm, the state-owned company said Monday morning, stressing that it is now dealing with “some more complex cases”.
Évelyne Paquette, who lives in a duplex in Saint-Laurent, found electricity Monday noon. Hope, then, for all those who fear they have been forgotten.
Well aware that “it wasn’t Ukraine”, she says straight away, Ms.me Paquette notes that it was destabilizing not to have electricity for more than five days.
PHOTO HUGO-SÉBASTIEN AUBERT, THE PRESS
Evelyne Paquette
Destabilizing and a little unreal to be deprived of power in this way when the sun is shining outside, the sky is blue and winter already seems so far behind us.
Her daughter and son-in-law, who live above her with their 14-month-old granddaughter, have gone to their in-laws, while Mrs.me Paquette received hospitality from his sister and brother-in-law. Who themselves lacked electricity, but who are very well equipped. “They have heating and a gas stove, so we were able to cook, shower, be warm…”
Every hour, Mme Paquette was glancing at the Hydro-Quebec map showing which neighborhoods are still without power. She therefore knew very well that her house was precisely one of the 33 residences in her neighborhood that were still without electricity.
Chantal and Michel Rheault, who are from Beaconsfield, are still waiting. “Day by day, we are told that the electricity will come back in the evening, but this is not the case. »
All their food is to be thrown away, they say, especially worried about their elderly neighbors who, like them, live near the river. “Them, they can’t leave their house, their house is flooded”, says Mme Rhault.
At 7 p.m., Hydro-Québec calculated that less than 16,500 Montreal homes are still without power, as are 2,300 customers in Outaouais, 1,500 in Montérégie and 1,300 customers in Laval.
A total of 1.1 million homes have been affected by a power outage since Wednesday.
Hydro-Québec points out that in some places, up to 30 millimeters of ice fell, affecting many trees or large branches that hit the wires.