Thousands still in dark as Hydro-Québec restores power after storm

The lights are back on across much of Quebec, but some 10 500 households are still without power two days after the remnants of tropical storm Debby dumped record-breaking amounts of rain on the province.

An outage map from Hydro-Québec shows roughly 5,500 customers in the Eastern Townships, 2,250 in the Laurentians and 600 in Montreal were still without power as of 3 p.m. Sunday — down significantly from Friday.

The historic deluge knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of Quebecers, with more than 550,000 customers left in the dark on Friday evening.

Hydro-Québec says the “vast majority” of those still without power can expect to have it restored by Sunday evening, but some may have to wait until Monday because of “accessibility issues.”

Environment Canada says Friday’s downpour shattered several single-day records for rainfall in the province, with the municipality of Lanoraie in the Lanaudière region of the province receiving 221 mm and the western tip of Montreal getting up to 173 mm.

The provincial power utility says it has deployed nearly 300 teams to restore power and is warning the public not to approach downed wires .