Fewer than 2,000 Hydro-Québec customers without power after storms caused new outages

Fewer than 2,000 Hydro-Québec customers were without power late Sunday afternoon, as the utility continued to repair outages after a major storm on Thursday along with new outages caused by additional thunderstorms.

As of Sunday morning, fewer than 2,000 clients who lost power due to Thursday's storm were still without electricity, but thousands of other customers had lost power as other storms passed through the province on Saturday night and Sunday, said hydro spokesman Francis Labbé.

• In photos: Thursday's powerful storm in Quebec

Those storms were bringing strong winds and rain, he said.

"That will make vegetation make contact with our grid and that will provoke outages. Sometimes it's just a a safety measure, the grid protects itself when it feels there is a a fluctuation in the tension, but sometimes there are more severe damages," he said in an interview Sunday.

"Our crews are intervening here and there to repair things, but sometimes more work has to be done."

The remaining areas without power since Thursday's storm involved the most complex repairs and each individual outage was only affecting a few households, Labbé said, slowing reconnection work.

Authorities also asked for power to be cut to thousands of customers in Montreal on Sunday morning for public safety reasons, Labbé said.

While Labbé said he didn't have specific information about why the cuts were requested, he added they're usually triggered by gas leaks or cars hitting hydro polls.

More than 392,000 hydro customers lost power during Thursday's storm.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 16, 2023.