Some 700 Hydro-Québec customers were still without power in Lanaudière and the Laurentians at the start of the week, Monday, nine days after the passage of a violent storm in these regions.
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“It would be fun if we could manage to restore everyone within 24 hours. […] But hey, the impossible, no one is required, ”explained Francis Labbé, spokesman for Hydro-Québec, taking stock of the recovery work Monday afternoon.
However, the latest outages tackled by approximately 2,000 Hydro-Québec employees and partners are complex and primarily concern isolated areas, which slows the pace of recovery.
“Eighty-six percent of outages concern one to ten customers,” Mr. Labbé also pointed out.
“These people have to be brought back [into the distribution network]. We are focusing our efforts on that,” the spokesperson continued.
The latter was careful not to give an exact timetable for the reconnection of the last subscribers deprived of electricity, but recognized that Hydro-Québec would like to succeed in turning the page for good on this storm in the coming days.
Remember that in addition to having to deal with heavy damage caused by gusts that reached up to 150 km/h, the Hydro-Québec teams were slowed down by the rain and the wind which caused new breakdowns last Thursday, collapsing the vegetation already weakened by the storm.
On the Ontario side, Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson said Monday that about 8,000 Hydro Ottawa customers were still without power. Hydro One, for its part, mentioned more than 12,000 people still to be reconnected on Sunday.
