Hydro-Quebec hoped yesterday to restore electricity to about 90% of the victims more than 72 hours after the imposing storm that hit much of Quebec on Saturday evening.
“The first citizens are starting to get electricity again. But there are so many micro-incidents that some citizens have it for the week before they have power, ”said Isabelle Perreault, mayor of Saint-Alphonse-Rodriguez, in Lanaudière.
Three days after the violent storm that hit Quebec, 112,000 Hydro-Quebec customers are still without power, mainly in the Laurentians, Lanaudière and Outaouais.
At the height of the crisis, more than 550,000 subscribers had no electricity.
“There are people who will still be out of order at the end of the day, given the extent of the damage that we observe and the number of outages,” said Maxence Huard-Lefebvre, spokesperson for Hydro -Quebec.
The state-owned company still listed more than 1,550 breakdowns at the end of the day yesterday.
“When we restore sectors, we make repairs in one place, but we discover other breakdowns,” says Mr. Huard-Lefebvre.
“Yes, we are dealing with the challenges of climate change, but we do not think that events of this nature will recur, in any case, according to the people we consult,” said Jonatan Julien, Minister of l Energy and Natural Resources.
Experts believe that this type of event could accelerate.
Still affected
In the meantime, those who are still affected are not happy.
“Most people don’t have electricity yet,” says Cathy –Durocher, acting general manager of Piedmont, in the Laurentians.
The vast majority of the municipality still does not have electricity and does not know when it will be back.
“We haven’t heard much for two days. We’re in the dark,” she said.
The mayor of Saint-Sauveur particularly deplores the poor communication between the municipalities and Hydro-Québec.
“We don’t know what their priorities are. It would be important for us to be able to talk to each other so that we could secure the residents, ”says Jacques Gariépy, who specifies that half of his population is now connected to electricity.
Significant damage
“There are a few trees that fell directly on houses, cars. […] It was still quite violent, ”recalls Ms. Durocher.
In Saint-Alphonse-Rodriguez, part of the roof of the Saint-Alphonse primary school even blew away, forcing its closure until the end of the school year.
The municipal administration was able to find premises nearby so that the 150 students could return to school next Monday.
“We want to be reassuring with the children who came to see their school this weekend. There were very long little faces. They will have everything they need near their school, ”says Ms. Perreault.
– With Nicolas Lachance
