Hydro-Québec crews are working throughout the long weekend to restore power to 300,000 customers still in the dark following Wednesday’s ice storm. The lights went off for more than a million people and has been linked to two deaths.
More than 825,000 customers have had their power restored, from the peak of 1.1 million on Thursday morning.
Hydro-Québec is holding a news conference at 9 a.m. Saturday to address the situation.
On Saturday, Hydro-Québec said it is hoping most households will regain power by the end of the weekend, but can’t give a precise timeline. Some may stay without power until Monday. It said 1,400 workers are on the ground throughout the province.
In Montreal, over 32,000 customers were still without power Saturday. Thousands of customers in the Lanaudière, Laval, Laurentians, Montérégie and Outaouais regions are also still waiting for power.
WATCH | Bury power lines to minimize future outages, expert says:
Normand Mousseau is the scientific director of the Trottier Energy Institute at Polytechnique Montréal.
On Friday, Montreal’s health authority said dozens of people suffered from carbon monoxide poisoning after using outdoor appliances inside during the blackout.
A 75-year-old man died in Saint-Joseph-du-Lac, Que., Friday after using a generator in his garage. The Deux-Montagnes police service said the level of carbon monoxide in the air was higher than normal.
It’s the second death linked to the storm in Quebec. On Thursday, a man in Les Coteaux, Que., died while attempting to cut down tree branches on his property.
Ticketing resumes Saturday morning
On Friday, city of Montreal spokesperson Philippe Sabourin said most major roads have been cleared, though fallen branches still littered some city streets on Saturday.
The city issued a statement saying it would not issue tickets until Saturday morning for cars parked in areas with spring cleaning restrictions and reserved parking restrictions.
“If tickets have been issued in these cases, the sustainable mobility agency will take the necessary steps required in order to cancel them,” a Friday statement read.
Heavy ice — in some cases up to 25 millimetres of it, according to Environment Canada — sent the branches crashing onto power lines, streets and cars on Wednesday.
