Around 15,000 Hydro-Québec customers without power Sunday morning due to high winds

Bad weather conditions caused a lot of headaches for Hydro Quebec on Saturday.

About 70,000 customers were without power around 7 p.m.

Power was gradually restored in the evening. Nevertheless, a little more than 15,000 customers were still without power on Sunday morning, around 6:30 a.m., mainly in Montérégie, south of Montreal.

The Montérégie (5,881 customers still without power), Laval (2,115 customers), and Laurentians (1,816 customers) regions were the most affected by these power outages, which persisted Sunday morning.

The Eastern Townships region was also affected on Sunday morning, with 1,788 customers of the state-owned company without power. They were more than double the previous day in the dark (4,141 customers).

Other outages were also reported Sunday morning in the Lanaudière (950 customers) and Outaouais (666 customers) regions, but to a lesser extent.

Hydro-Québec said in the evening that its teams were working to restore service as quickly as possible.

The Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change predicted that winds would reach 90 km/h in many parts of Quebec on Saturday.

Around 8 p.m., the wind warning was lifted in the Montreal, Laval, Montérégie and Laurentians regions, and around 10 p.m. in the other regions.

Only the Lower North Shore remained subject to strong winds, which continued Sunday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Dec. 4, 2022.