The storm that hit Quebec and damaged Hydro-Quebec equipment still left hundreds of thousands of customers without power on Saturday morning.
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According to the state company’s most recent report around 12 p.m., just over 272,000 subscribers had still not found power, a situation that was improving compared to the early morning.
The Capitale-Nationale remained the most affected region as the day before with 60,570 customers without electricity.
Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean and Montérégie were not left out with 37,965 and 31,741 homes respectively in the dark, as was the North Shore, which was hit late by the storm (25,598 customers).
Mauricie (22,529 customers), Laurentians (21,589 customers), Bas-Saint-Laurent (18,909 customers), Outaouais (15,384 customers), Chaudière-Appalaches (8,401 customers) and Centre-du -Quebec (7,500 customers) are also facing power outages.
At the height of the blackouts, nearly 380,000 homes were deprived of electricity around 1 a.m. on the night of Friday to Saturday.
“These outages are mainly related to heavy snow falling on our wires and vegetation,” explained Éric Fillion, executive vice-president of Hydro-Québec at a press briefing on Saturday. “We have a hundred wooden poles that need to be replaced because they broke.”
Recall that Hydro-Québec has deployed nearly 1,200 employees to try to restore electricity by Christmas Eve for households that have been affected since Friday. Emergencies, hospitals, CHSLDs, residences for the elderly and municipal infrastructures are favored in recovery.
“We have a lot of small breakdowns that affect few customers. We have 25% of breakdowns that affect less than five customers and we have 50% of breakdowns that affect less than 20 customers,” said Mr. Fillion.
To find out the breakdown of outages region by region, click here.
