2023-05-06 11:00:00
You are not fooled, power outages caused by major weather events are more and more numerous. And Hydro-Québec invites the population to do its part to deal with these periods of service interruption.
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The vice-president of sustainable development at Hydro-Québec allowed herself a parenthesis in an exchange with Liberal MP Gregory Kelley during the study of budget appropriations on Thursday, to send a message to the population.
“Perhaps I would like to point out that we talk a lot regarding climate change, adaptation, resilience. Hydro-Québec, we’re going to take this as far as we can, but I think we have to ask ourselves the question among ourselves, socially as well, then as customers, to make sure we’re ready when there are outages that occur,” said Julie Boucher, alongside Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon.
The VP noted that, of the 15 major weather events that have caused blackouts since 1987, “the five most important have occurred since 2019” (see table at the end of the text).
“I don’t want to be a bird of doom, but certainly we have to prepare and make sure that we anticipate that breakdowns might happen,” she continued.
Hydro-Quebec “will do everything to ensure that they are as few as possible, as short as possible”. “But we also have to as customers, as business owners, as communities, prepare for this eventuality,” warned Ms.me Butcher (see other table below).
Indeed, power outages have unfortunate effects, shows a Léger survey of consumers who remained without electricity following the ice storm last April.
72% of respondents had to dress warmer inside their homes because the temperature was too low, while 52% had to throw away food.
Similarly, 39% no longer had any means of communication because their electronic devices were empty, 29% had to take refuge with friends and 9% called on the emergency shelters set up by their municipality.
However, the crisis only lasted a few days for the majority of users, a week for the less fortunate.
Last December, the Auditor General of Quebec noted a drop in the reliability of the electricity network, due to its aging infrastructure.
But Hydro-Québec pleads that “the frequency and duration of climatic events are the cause of these events”. “When a mature tree or a shed falls on our network, no matter how strong it is, it will not resist”, affirms Francis Labbé, specifying that a shed blown by the wind did indeed damage the network during the Derecho last spring.
It is not end-of-life transformers that explain these breakdowns, it is the violence of the weather events that we have experienced, ”he adds.
Despite this, Hydro-Québec is hard at work dealing with these increasingly frequent events. “For example, our vegetation control investments have grown from around $60 million in 2018 to over $100 million in 2021, and we’re aiming for around $125 million in 2024,” the spokesperson wrote.
Here are the 10 most important events that have occurred since 1987. In yellow, those that have occurred since 2009:
Source: Hydro-Quebec
Hydro-Québec’s recommendations for preparing for outages
►Have an emergency kit at home at all times that contains the essential items to meet your family’s basic needs for 3 days:
- Drinking water (6 liters per person);
- Non-perishable food (for at least 3 days);
- Manual can opener;
- Battery operated radio – spare batteries;
- Headlamp or flashlight – spare batteries or crank lamp;
- Lighter or matches and candles;
- First aid kit – antiseptics, analgesics, adhesive bandages, sterile gauze pads, scissors, etc.;
►Draw up a contact list of people to contact in case of emergency – family members, daycare, school, municipality, etc.
►Make the evacuation plan for the house, agree on a meeting place and carry out evacuation drills if necessary. If you live in a building with an elevator, use the steps in case of emergency and even during your evacuation drills.
►Make sure you know how to shut off the water, electricity and gas, if applicable.
►Plan a route to leave your neighborhood in case of evacuation. Plan a second trip in case roads are impassable.
►Make an inventory of your belongings, with proof of purchase, photos or videotapes. Keep these documents and a copy of your home and auto insurance policies outside your home in a safe place, such as the office.
►Contact your insurer to verify your home insurance coverage. The majority of insurance contracts cover damage caused by natural disasters such as hail, lightning, windstorms or tornadoes.
*Taken from the guide Make your family emergency plan and your emergency kit, of the government of Quebec
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