Thousands of Quebecers will spend Christmas without electricity.
In the followingnoon of Saturday, Hydro-Québec reported nearly 230,000 customers still without power since the day before. No region of Quebec was spared by these power outages.
The hardest hit region remained the Capitale-Nationale with 51,843 Hydro-Quebec subscribers without power when they woke up on Saturday.
At a press conference, the President and CEO of Hydro-Québec, Sophie Brochu, compared the situation to a snake and ladder game
. Indeed, even if 200,000 households were able to be connected by the network, 200,000 new breakdowns were added on Friday evening.
From the Hydro-Québec Coordination Centre, the executive vice-president of the government corporation, Éric Filion, indicated that the repair situation was progressing, but that we had to deal with small breakdowns
which reach few customers.
% of 250000breakdowns that affect less than five customers and we have 50% of failures affecting less than 20customers.”,”text”:”We have 25% of the 250,000 failures that affect less than five customers and we have 50% of the failures that affect less than 20 customers.””>We have 25% of the 250,000 breakdowns that affect fewer than five customers and we have 50% of the breakdowns that affect fewer than 20 customers.
He specified that it is the violent winds, with records recorded at more than 125 km/h in the region of Quebec, which generated the additional blackouts, in particular in the east of the province.
These meteorological elements slowed down the work
he specified, adding that the end of the ice storm, which can have consequences on the lines, was however good news for Hydro-Québec.
Outages are mainly related to heavy snow falling on our wires and vegetation
he launched, assuring that a team of 12,000 employees was at work to restore power. Regarding the new outages tonight, we are patrolling the network to understand the damage levels.
Mr. Filion promised that Hydro-Québec’s objective was to reconnect the majority of subscribers by Sunday evening, that is Christmas dinner, without however commenting on the state of the new outages that have occurred in recent hours.
The network holds up
noted Mr. Tellier, but a hundred wooden poles of the distribution network were damaged across different regions. They must be replaced.
Some 1,200 Hydro-Québec workers have been mobilized since Friday, including line workers and customer service teams.
There are service centers for disaster victims that are open all over the territory.
said the Minister of Public Security, François Bonardel, on the airwaves of RDI in the followingnoon. They will be open to welcome all these people. If there are others that should be open in the next few hours, we’ll do it.
Call for caution on the roads
The effects of the severe winter storm hitting Quebec are also complicating road conditions.
The spokesperson for the Ministère des Transports, Gilles Payer, indicates that the regions where the roads are most affected by climatic conditions are north of the St. Lawrence River, from the south to the Lower North Shore, including the mountainous regions, Saguenay and Abitibi as well as Beauce.
The [régions] Bas-Saint-Laurent and all of coastal Gaspésie are of concern for the risks of coastal surges
he mentioned.
The spokesperson specifies that all the roads of the province, including the center of Quebec, Montérégie and Estrie and the metropolitan area, to a lesser extent, present roads which go from icy to snow-covered, sometimes released.
He adds that visibility on the roads is very variable, ranging from good to reduced, and even zero in several places. A pile-up involving some twenty vehicles took place this morning at 9:10 a.m. near the Île-aux-Tourtes bridge in the Vaudreuil-Dorion sector.
The Sûreté du Québec (SQ) there are no casualties or serious injuries. Although towing operations are still in progress, the partial opening of the road axis is planned for soon, report the authorities.
Another accident involving a dozen vehicles took place on Highway 15 south in the Mirabel sector. The emergency response is now complete. Road conditions, even if the precipitation is over, remain variable from one section to another
recalled the SQ.
Reduced visibility, caused by strong winds and blowing snow, forced the closure to traffic of many arteries on the territory, in particular Route 381 between Charlevoix and the Saguenay River and Route 389 Baie-Comeau towards Fermont. As for Route 138 between Baie-Comeau and Port-Cartier, it is now open.
Air and rail transport still disrupted
Montreal-Trudeau International Airport is experiencing disruptions to most flights on Saturday. The vast majority of departures are currently delayed. The situation is similar for arrivals.
For the day of December 24, cancellations affect 25 flights out of a total of 401 flights. These are mainly domestic flights.hours before”,”text”:”It is important for travelers to check their flight status before going to the airport and arrive at least 3 hours before”}}”>It is important for travelers to check the status of their flight before going to the airport and to arrive at least 3 hours beforeadvises the airport.
As for Via Rail, more than fifteen trains in the Quebec City-Windsor corridor were immobilized or canceled on Saturday morning and passengers were stuck on the tracks for many hours.
From power outages, trees on the tracks and even a tree falling on a locomotive, conditions make it impossible for some of our trains to run
explained by email a spokesperson for Via Rail.
Passengers traveling on these trains will be fully reimbursed, promises Via Rail, which invites passengers to consult the company’s website before going to the station since it provides for significant delays
on the line connecting Ontario to Quebec.
With information from The Canadian Press
