80-year-old in West Island living without electricity for nearly 100 hours
Posted April 9, 2023 4:28 pm.
Last Updated April 9, 2023 6:30 pm.
It’s coming up to 100 hours without power for West Island resident Anna Adub.
The 80-year-old is one of many Dollard-des-Ormeaux residents who lost power Wednesday during the ice storm.
Adub didn’t imagine she would still be in the dark four full days later.
“You have to cope. There’s no other way,” said Adub, who has lived in the West Island for 51 years. “You’re hoping every day the hydro will come back. But it didn’t come back.”
Adub, who uses a small light to move around her home, has had to wear a jacket in her home because of the lack of heat. She’s also wearing it to sleep.
“In the night I sleep like this, with the hat and gloves and the double socks and the double comforter,” she said.
Dollard-des-Ormeaux resident Anna Adub examines what spoiled in her fridge after going nearly 100 hours without electricity. (Felisha Adam/CityNews)
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Adub has been going back and forth from her home to the mall to charge her phone and get a bite to eat – like many others in the same situation as her.
“I go to the mall and I charge my cell phone,” she said. “And I sit on the floor and eat at the mall.
“But then we have to come back into this cold at home. We have to come back. We can’t cook anything.”
In Adub’s community, more than 750 homes have been without power since Wednesday afternoon. Adub still doesn’t know when the power will come back.
“Maybe tomorrow (Monday), hopefully today (Sunday). But they said maybe tomorrow. But really, between today and tomorrow, it wouldn’t make a difference because we lost everything anyway.”
“I lost everything in the freezer, everything in the fridge… All my house is full. I have two freezers like this.”
Adub had prepped in advance for Easter weekend. She says the food she prepared – worth $2,000 at least – will have to be thrown out.
Hydro-Quebec says it hopes to reconnect power Sunday to more than 50,000 customers who have been without electricity since last week’s deadly ice storm, but the utility admits some outages will not be resolved before Tuesday.
As of Sunday afternoon, roughly 85,000 Hydro-Quebec customers were still without power.
“I am sad,” said Adub. “Mostly sad because now that I have to replace everything and especially now this is Easter, I was planning to do something and I’m unable to do that.”
Outside of Adub’s home, fallen trees were still lying everywhere by Sunday afternoon.
“Here seven cars are damage, three homes are damaged here… there are some houses, doors are damaged.”
“I don’t see why it’s happening. You know, we’re in Canada here, advanced country, developed country. And it shouldn’t happen. It shouldn’t happen. The wiring should be underground.”
