(Montreal) The number of Hydro-Quebec customers who were without power fell by more than 5,000 on Thursday, but the state corporation did not know when the other residential customers without power would be reconnected to the network.
By 8 a.m. Friday, just over 5,000 customers were still without power from last week’s storms, up from more than 11,000 some 24 hours earlier.
At dawn on Friday, the largest number of subscribers without electric power was in the Outaouais, with 1,700, followed by the Capitale-Nationale and Laurentides regions, with less than 1,000 each.
Spokeswoman Lynn St-Laurent said Thursday that while Hydro-Quebec would like to let customers know when their power will return, it’s hard to make an estimate because most of those who are still without power are in remote areas and require complex repairs.
Mme St-Laurent could not predict whether all customers would be reconnected on Saturday.
About 1,300 Hydro-Quebec workers were on the ground Thursday.
Lynn St-Laurent explains that in many cases, entire trees have fallen on the wires, which requires longer repairs, in places where there are fewer customers. Once this long and arduous work is completed, a small number of customers are reconnected.
In some cases, workers travel by snowmobile or on foot, even on snowshoes, carrying their equipment, she said.
The storm that swept through last Friday knocked out power to more than 350,000 Hydro-Quebec customers at its peak.