The impacts of the significant amounts of rain left by the passage of the storm Debby are still being felt in several regions of Quebec on Monday, but a return to normal is gradually taking place.
According to Hydro-Québec, only “a few hundred” homes lost power during the storm DebbyFriday, still had no power restored on Monday.
Consult the Hydro-Québec network outage report
In some cases, these are more isolated homes or cottages. In others, reconnection is more complex because the Crown corporation’s crews have difficulty getting to the sites due to road damage.
“We go where it is possible, but we must always go to places where it is safe. We have bucket trucks that weigh a certain amount, so the roads must be repaired by the municipalities before we can go there,” explained Pascal Poinlane, who is a spokesperson for Hydro-Québec, in an interview.
At the height of the event, Friday evening, 550,000 subscribers of the state-owned company were plunged into darkness across the province.
As of Monday, the remaining outages are mostly affecting fewer than five customers, so repair crews are having to work harder to reconnect just a few addresses.
Furthermore, in some situations it is simply not possible to restore power at this time.
“If, for example, a homeowner has had their home damaged by water or their electrical panel, located in a basement, has been affected, they must first ask their master electrician to come and repair the electrical installation before Hydro-Québec can restore power,” said Mr. Poinlane.
Since other storms occurred over the weekend, new outages were triggered, meaning that overall, a few thousand Hydro-Québec customers are still facing a service interruption.
Mr. Poinlane mentioned, however, that in many cases, teams have been assigned and will be deployed quickly to carry out the reconnections.
Dorval tunnel closed
On the road network, some obstacles remain in place. This is the case, for example, of the Dorval tunnel, in the west of the island of Montreal, which remains inaccessible due to an accumulation of water.
Check the status of the road network
The Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility explained on Sunday that the tunnel’s pumping station was damaged by backflows from the municipal sewer system that evacuates water from this section of Highway 13.
The tunnel is therefore closed for an indefinite period.
For people who usually use Highway 13 in this area, the ministry recommends considering another route, as well as favoring public transportation and teleworking, where possible.
All motorists are also invited to consult Quebec 511 before starting their journey.
Several Quebec municipalities received record amounts of rain in the space of 24 hours on Friday, exceeding 100 millimetres in many places, as the province was swept by the remnants of the hurricane. Debby.
According to Public Security Minister François Bonnardel, 55 municipalities were affected by flooding. More precisely, 260 residences were flooded.
In addition, 400 people were evacuated, and nearly 170 roads were affected by the damage. Finally, eight municipalities declared a state of local emergency.
Some disaster victims who meet the eligibility criteria will be entitled to financial assistance under the General Disaster Financial Assistance Program, the government announced.