Hydro-Quebec maintains that most of its customers without power since last Friday's storm will have it back by Wednesday.
"The vast majority of our customers will be restored by Wednesday," Hydro-Quebec's senior director of operations and maintenance for the Centre-du-Québec, Julie Sbeghen, announced Monday at a virtual press conference.
However, she could not give a precise end date for all the outages. Those that will remain after Wednesday, more complex or more distant, will "be done surgically."
Sophie Brochu, the organization's president and CEO, explained that some situations are more complex, such as "large trees that have fallen on the roads" and since some isolated areas are only accessible by snowmobile and snowshoes.
The toll, which stood at 130,000 customers without power on Sunday morning, dropped to 25,000 by 4:15 p.m. Tuesday, with 1,413 outages.
Brochu urged the population to wait for the arrival of Hydro-Quebec crews: "You may have an irresistible desire to help out. Please don't touch the trees, don't touch the wires, it's for your own safety," she said.
Fuel-burning space heaters can also be very dangerous if used indoors, as they create risks of asphyxiation and poisoning.
Brochu also noted that several municipalities have opened emergency centres to assist affected residents.
According to Sbeghen, the arrival of milder weather will help Hydro-Québec's 1,200 employees to restore the situation more quickly. Among other things, a dozen helicopters flew in to do some spotting and de-icing, now that visibility is better.
At the height of the storm, nearly 380,000 Quebec customers were without power. According to Hydro-Quebec, more than 670,000 customers have been affected at one time or another since Thursday night.
As of early Tuesday morning, the region hardest hit by power outages remained the Quebec City area, with 12,026 Hydro-Québec customers still without power.
The other regions most affected were Saguenay--Lac-Saint-Jean (6,779 customers), Côte-Nord (5,833 customers), the Laurentians (3,473 customers) and Mauricie (3,122 customers).
Bas-Saint-Laurent (1,638 clients), the Outaouais (915 clients) and the Montérégie (468 clients) were also affected.
Teams are moved from one region to another to ensure that the most affected areas have the necessary number of crews in the field for the amount of work to be done.
HYDRO-QUEBEC ON THE DEFENCE
In her report tabled at the beginning of December, the Auditor General of Quebec, Guylaine Leclerc, had noted that "a significant part of the preventive maintenance efforts that Hydro-Quebec must carry out is not accomplished" and that the company "is not adequately equipped to face the growing challenge of the aging of its assets."
When asked about this, Brochu said that the current situation had "nothing to do" with the state of the electrical network, as "we were facing an extreme weather situation."
In terms of ensuring that no branches fall onto power lines, Hydro-Québec says it checks 17,000 kilometres of wires per year, out of a total network of 100,000 kilometres.
"We would like to do more,'' but there is a lack of manpower, Brochu said. She also recalled that in the case of the storm of the last few days, it was often entire trees that fell on the wires.
In any case, "we're going to do a post-mortem," she said, promising to "be even better prepared for province-wide events like this."
On Saturday afternoon, Quebec Premier François Legault tweeted about the work of Hydro-Quebec crews, who are doing "everything they can to reconnect as many homes as possible, as quickly as possible." He also praised the efforts of the Ministry of Public Safety and invited Quebecers to check on their loved ones who are living alone.
TRAVEL DISRUPTIONS
Quebecers travelling for the holiday season should also note that some disruptions are still in effect in the various modes of transportation.
Environment Canada's weather warnings were lifted Tuesday morning, but there was still snow on some roads.
On Tuesday morning, Transport Quebec reminded drivers who travel between Quebec City and Saguenay in electric vehicles that they do not have access to charging stations for an indefinite period in the Laurentian Wildlife Reserve, in l'Étape. Motorists are advised to download the Québec 511 application to stay informed of current road conditions.
At Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport, several flights that were scheduled to leave on Monday were delayed or cancelled, but most planes also managed to leave the tarmac. At Quebec City's Jean Lesage International Airport, more than a third of departures were delayed or cancelled.
VIA Rail cancelled all Christmas Day and overnight services between Toronto and Montreal, as well as between Toronto and Ottawa, due to the impact of a Canadian National (CN) train derailment on Christmas Eve. Those routes will resume Tuesday on a modified schedule, the company announced on Twitter.
Fierce winter conditions stranded nine VIA Rail trains Friday night, in some cases leaving passengers without food and water for more than 12 hours. Federal Transport Minister Omar Alghabra called the situation at VIA Rail "unacceptable" on Saturday afternoon.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Dec. 27, 2022.
