'Extremely frustrating:' Slow progress in the West Island after ice storm knocks out power

It's another day of darkness for many residents of the West Island, a sector of the Montreal area struck particularly hard by Wednesday's ice storm.

While the lights are gradually coming back on elsewhere in the region, power outages on the West Island were still widespread early Friday afternoon.

Jim Beis, borough mayor for Pierrefonds-Roxboro, said he's working with the Red Cross to set up an overnight shelter for those in need.

Speaking to CJAD 800 Radio, he reported little progress made in returning power to his residents.

"The issue in Pierrefonds, as is the case throughout the West Island, is that we have virtually unchanged the statistics," he said.

LISTEN to CJAD 800 Radio: Pierrefonds-Roxboro hoping to provide ice storm relief with warming centre

At a news conference earlier that day, Hydro-Quebec officials said they were making steady headway in repairs across the province and hoped to have 800,000 customers back on the grid by Friday night.

However, the Crown corporation noted some customers would be in the dark through to Sunday, possibly even Monday.

Snapshot of power outages in Montreal's West Island on April 7, 2023.

Beis worries West Islanders will fall into this camp.

[It's] extremely frustrating when we're not getting, necessarily, a timeline or a critical path to lead us toward getting back our electricity. And it's creating a lot of folks that are quite concerned over this situation," he said. 

Alex Bottausci, mayor of Dollard-des-Ormeaux, made similar points on CJAD 800.

He feared many residents won't have power overnight Friday, when temperatures are forecasted to dip as low as -6 C.

"The crews are here. Now the question is, how quickly can they work before that cold snap comes in?" he said.

Power outages are an all-too-familiar issue in the community, he lamented.

"It seems like every time that there's a little bit of wind, there's a power outage somewhere in Dollard. So there's that built-up frustration from past experiences."

Bottausci said he's also considering setting up an overnight shelter on Friday, depending on the need.

While daytime warming centres were opened in various West Island municipalities, including Pierrefonds-Roxboro and Dollard-des-Ormeaux, some residents have flocked to public spaces like shopping malls to charge their phones and warm up.