Nearly 61,500 Hydro-Québec customers lost power Tuesday night on the island of Montreal and the South Shore due to the ice storm.
At approximately 10 pm, just over 54,600 people were deprived of electricity on the South Shore, in towns near Montreal, including Longueuil, Brossard, Boucherville and the localities of the MRC de Roussillon.
On the Montreal side, the situation was improving. While 14,000 people were deprived of power due to 19 breakdowns around 8:30 pm, mainly on the Plateau-Mont-Royal, Côte-des-Neiges and Verdun, there were just over 6,700 customers left without electricity at 10 pm
“An unexpected freezing rain cell crossed Montreal and Montérégie,” said Ouali Fodil, spokesperson for Hydro-Québec.
The freezing rain, which added to the rain that fell throughout the day on Tuesday, weighed down tree branches that hit electrical wires, causing the circuits to trip.
“You can not bring the power back when there is ice. You have to send patrol teams, “said Folid. Workers must go to the site of the breakdowns where, if necessary, they cut the branches before reconnecting the circuit breakers.
“It’s classic when we have ice,” he added.
The majority of breakdowns, excluding those where wires or transformers were damaged by the fall of branches, were to be repaired by the end of the evening, said the spokesman, without being able to give a time average before the repairs are not completed.
To check the situation in your area, check the fault map here
