Second woman dies after prolonged power outage in NDG

An 87-year-old woman died in hospital after being found in her Notre-Dame-de-Grace home during a prolonged power outage on Sunday.

Sheila Padmore, who lived with her husband, was found by authorities during a wellness check.

“When we got in, yeah, Sheila was on the floor,” recounted downstairs neighbour Dawn Lambing. “I think (her husband) was probably trying to put her in the bed.”

Urgences-santé says she was transported to hospital in critical condition. A doctor at the Glen Site hospital where Padmore was taken said her body temperature was 22 degrees Celsius when she arrived, according to Lambing.

“It was horrible,” she said.

By 3 a.m., Lambing and Padmore’s husband returned home from the hospital. Lambing’s number was left as the emergency contact since the husband still had no power or phone access. On Monday, a nurse from the Glen called Lambing to say Padmore had died.

“I had to tell him that his wife is not here with him anymore,” Lambing said.

The Quebec coroner’s office is investigating, with coroner Marie-Claude Boutin appointed to determine the cause and circumstances of Padmore’s death.

“What I do know in dealing with seniors every single day, in this case, there was hypothermia,” said seniors’ advocate Matt Del Vecchio. “There was even her husband, could you imagine, with her there. But if they both had hypothermia, obviously that’s affecting not only the ability to shiver, but you’re not thinking properly and it’s affecting their way of maybe we should be treating the situation a little differently.”

Kevin, another neighbour who lived next door to Padmore, says he left his home during the outage. When he returned Sunday, he says he saw what may have been candlelight inside their apartment. He tried knocking at the door but didn’t hear anything. He says he saw police lights down the road and flagged officers down to come and do a wellness check.

“The rest of the story is obviously tragic,” he said.

Interim borough mayor Sonny Moroz offered condolences but deferred to the coroner’s investigation.

During the peak outage Saturday, 15,000 Montreal households lost power, especially in the Côte Saint-Luc and NDG areas.

And on Wednesday, Hydro-Québec temporarily cut power to about 900 households for several hours in Côte Saint-Luc and NDG to strengthen the grid while replacing a broken transformer at the Hampstead substation.

“Obviously the messaging from Hydro- Québec gave hope to people from what we understand,” said Del Vecchio. “And they’re saying, ‘OK, it’s going to be on in a few hours.’ And this probably gave people a false sense of security. I’m sure this contributed to it.”

Kevin blames Hydro-Québec and the city for failing residents this past weekend.

“My suggestion would be if you don’t know, say ‘we don’t know,’” he said. “And if you know it’s a major problem, tell people to get out. It cost someone their life; it’s not OK.”

Hydro-Québec acknowledged some of its messaging was a mistake.

“Regarding what happened last weekend, it is true that we should have been clear that some of the customers could have to wait longer to get the power back. We apologize for that,” said Hydro spokesperson Pascal Poinlane.

This is the second death during last weekend’s power outage. Miriam Foox, 66, was found dead during a wellness check in Montreal West on Sunday evening. Her death is also being investigated by coroner Boutin.

The Quebec Ministry of Health and the Quebec Ministry for Seniors and Caregivers, both represented by Minister Sonia Bélanger, would not comment on the deaths.

“It’s a completely preventable death and in 2026 in Montreal, people shouldn’t be without power for three days,” said Kevin.