About 5,000 homes without power following violent storms in Quebec

As of Thursday 6:00 a.m., close to 5,000 Hydro-Québec customers were still without power, following violent thunderstorms that swept across the province Tuesday afternoon and evening.

Outages are now 80 per cent in the Laurentians area — the Montérégie, Outaouais, Montreal, and Laval, and other regions were also affected.

“At the peak of the event, we had around 144,000 addresses without power,” said Cendrix Bouchard, a Hydro-Québec spokesperson. “We’ve made significant progress.”

Bouchard told CityNews that more than 1,000 employees were on the ground, replacing several dozens of poles throughout the network.

“Gusts reaching over 100 km/h caused extensive damage to the system, and much equipment needs to be replaced,” the government-owned utility added.

“We thank our customers for their understanding and cooperation.”

In Montreal, after losing electricity in her home, Rosemont resident Sandra said she went to her friends who had power.

“It reminded me of memories in my country of the power outages and it wasn’t a happy thing, it was chaos, and it reminded me of that so I decided to go see my friends,” she said.

“I can’t really tell you when everybody’s gonna be back on the grid,” said Bouchard. “Replacing a pole from one situation to another can be very different if they are easy or not to access.”

Environment Canada warned Tuesday that conditions were conducive to the formation of dangerous thunderstorms capable of producing damaging gusts.

By Tuesday night, violent thunderstorms, accompanied in places by hail, heavy rain, and strong gusts, swept across the province.

In Montreal, extensive storm-related damage was reported across the city.

Another Rosemont resident Pierre said that the rain and the wind became stronger in a short span of time.

“I was just sitting outside on the terrace and I was enjoying the tropical rain we had. But then the wind and the rain became torrential, very hard and the trees were like that,” Pierre said pointing to a debris of fallen trees.

A 15-year-old boy was seriously injured when he became trapped under a falling tree in the Ahuntsic-Cartierville borough.

“Right now he’s in the hospital getting all what he needs,” said Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante. “We’re following the situation very carefully.

“I do invite Montrealers to be careful in the next coming days. There might be some branches that are unstable. And if you see something you feel like, ‘oh, I think this is going to fall,’ please contact 311 because our blue collars are working hard. They will be cleaning the parks and streets, but don’t put your life in danger, please.”

At Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital, which has been in the news for several weeks due to the postponement of renovations and its dilapidated state, a power outage occurred in the evening.

On social media, shortly before 11 p.m., Santé Québec reported that power was back on and that hospital teams were working to ensure a “normal resumption of services.”

“We would like to acknowledge the work of the teams at Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital and the CIUSSS de l’Est-de-Montréal who ensured the power supply was restored (…). All patients and staff are safe,” the government agency stated.

This situation prompted Parti Québécois health critic Joël Arseneau to reiterate that what is happening at Maisonneuve-Rosemont right now is “serious.”

“And the CAQ still doesn’t have a plan for modernizing this hospital!” he denounced on the social network X.

In Laval, a fire that broke out overnight on infrastructure belonging to a public service has caused Highway 19 to be closed “for part of the day” between Highway 440 and Saint-Martin Boulevard.

In the Lower Laurentians, the towns of Rosemère, Lorraine, and Bois-des-Filion have issued a precautionary boil water advisory following a power outage affecting the computer equipment at the Rosemère water treatment plant, which also serves Lorraine and Bois-des-Filion.

Residents of the towns in question must boil their tap water for one minute before consuming it, until further notice.

“We’ve done significant progress overnight with our crews assessing all the emergencies,” said Bouchard on the outages. “Today we’ve been working nonstop.”

He added that if people see wires on the ground, to report them on the Hydro-Québec website and “always assume that they might be live, that there might be electricity, and never approach closer to three meters.”

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews