Nearly 320,000 Hydro-Quebec customers woke up without electricity on Sunday morning due to blackouts caused by the strong winds that blew overnight over the south of the province.
The weather conditions caused “significant damage”, explained Hydro-Quebec in the early morning.
“More than 400 fitters are at work to restore service. We aim to restore service for the majority in the next day, ”the crown corporation wrote, warning that restoring power could take longer in some cases.
“Due to the scale of the event, it is unfortunately not possible to specify the recovery times for each specific location,” adds Hydro-Quebec, which calls on its customers to be “patient”.
The number of customers affected by the outages has decreased since 6 am when it was around 380,000.
At around 10 a.m., the vast majority of outages were located in Montérégie, with 97,109 customers affected, according to a report from the state corporation.
The Laurentides, Lanaudière and Outaouais regions followed with 64,263, 39,790 and 33,569 customers affected, respectively. In Montreal, there were 17,036, and in Laval 21,018.
According to Environment Canada, maximum gusts of 106 km / h were measured at the Montreal airport. Winds blew up to around 90 km / h in several surrounding regions of southern Quebec.
“All the regions close to the River” have tasted it, summed up meteorologist Maja Rapaic.
Environment Canada withdrew most of its weather warnings in Quebec during the night. The low has now passed to the east, but it will still be windy on Sunday.
Sectors in the Bas-Saint-Laurent, Gaspésie, Saguenay and Côte-Nord regions, however, continue to experience strong winds.
A trailer truck overturned shortly after midnight on Highway 13 in Laval due to strong winds, reported the Sûreté du Québec (SQ).
“The truck, which was empty during the incident, ended up on the parapet that separates the south bay and the north bay. […] at the level of the Bisson bridge. The driver remained stuck in the cabin, but suffered no injuries, ”said Sergeant Stéphane Tremblay, a spokesperson for the SQ.