Quebec Ice storm: almost all customers who lost power, have seen it restored

MONTREAL – The number of Quebec customers still without power six days after last Wednesday’s ice storm is at almost 16,000 as of Tuesday morning, but then jumped to 30,000 plus by noon with more outages in the Montérégie – before dipping again.

According to the latest figures provided by Hydro-Quebec, there were still 8,413 customers without service at 5:31 p.m. The number of outages is at 188.

The Crown corporation had planned to reconnect “almost all” homes by the end of the day Monday.

The most affected regions remain Montreal (3,365 customers) and the Montérégie (1,999).

Utility spokesman Francis Labbe says work is particularly complicated in areas where mature trees have damaged power lines and need to be removed before crews can conduct repairs.

Hydro-Quebec says it has restored power to 99 per cent of the 1.1 million customers who lost electricity after freezing rain sent trees crashing onto power lines last Wednesday.

Labbe says it’s difficult to estimate when the remaining clients will be reconnected because each outage requires hours of work that only brings a small number of customers back on the grid at a time.

He says about 1,500 people, including Hydro-Quebec employees and contractors, are on the job.

When asked about the possibility of Hydro-Quebec offering some form of compensation to customers affected by the outages, the director of energy system control, Maxime Nadeau, said that “most of the time, it’s something we look at after the event (…) I can’t answer that question right now”.

The government said that more than 100 emergency centers have opened in the most affected areas to allow people who are experiencing prolonged blackouts to warm up, eat and recharge their electronic devices.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French April 10, 2023.