The violent winds that blew across Quebec on Friday and Saturday left many homes in several regions without power. At the peak of the outages, nearly 100,000 customers were without power.
Gusts have reached up to 90 km/h in places since Friday evening, putting a strain on Hydro-Québec’s infrastructure.
Some 500 Hydro-Québec workers were at work last night until 10 p.m. and 80 others were also on the ground to respond to emergencies during the night. This morning, 400 workers were again dispatched to overcome the numerous breakdowns.
By mid-evening, 7,700 Hydro-Québec customers were still without electricity.
The majority of them were located in Estrie (4,451 addresses affected) and in Chaudière-Appalaches (1,438). Montreal and the Laurentians, with 600 addresses without electricity, complete the podium.
Changing situation on the ground
The toll has been fluctuating since Friday evening because the situation on the ground is changing, explains Hydro-Québec.
The meteorological event consisting of episodes of violent winds is now over, except for a few regions in eastern Quebec. Hydro-Québec predicts that the vast majority of customers will regain electrical service today
declared a spokesperson for the state-owned company, Pascal Poinlane, Saturday afternoon.
Mr. Poinlane indicated that this time, it is not equipment breakdown that is the main cause of the outages.
We still have a few poles that were smashed or broken by the force of the winds and trees that fell, but mainly, it was vegetation that came into contact with the Hydro-Québec transmission and distribution network.
he declared.
That takes less time to repair. We are hopeful that the number of breakdowns will continue to fall.
Wind alerts from Environment Canada were still in effect for certain sectors of Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean, Bas-Saint-Laurent, Gaspésie, Côte-Nord and Nord-du-Québec.
The Maritimes affected
The Atlantic provinces are not spared. More than 150,000 homes were without power Saturday morning.
At approximately 8:15 a.m., more than 97,000 homes across all regions of Nova Scotia were without power.
In New Brunswick, Energy NB indicates that most outages are concentrated in the south and west of the province.
With information from Andréane Williams, Flavie Sauvageau and The Canadian Press
