Some Quebecers will likely wait weeks before severely damaged power lines are fixed
After this weekend's fierce storm, some Quebecers are being told to hunker down and get ready to live on generators, or without power, for several weeks.
In the town of Ste-Adele in the Laurentians, for example, the seriousness of the damage is easy to see.
"We had hurricane winds come through this area," said Darryl Craig, one resident showing the destruction near his home, with several trees knocked down.
"It uprooted some trees and basically our power lines are all down," he said. "You can see the wire and everything."
The mangled wires supply electricity to his entire block, and it could be weeks before it's all repaired.
"Apparently Hydro now is prioritizing all the roads in the front of the houses, and we're going to be another 10 to 14 days without power, or [before] someone coming to get the lines fixed and the trees cut down," he said.
He's using a generator, like most of his neighbours. But now gas is getting hard to find locally.
"We came yesterday morning so I [could] have two tanks of gas, but when we came yesterday in the evening there was no more gas," one local reported.
People weren't prepared for an emergency on this scale, most agree.
And for some, it's even worse -- for example, having four trees collapse not onto your power lines but onto your house, which is the situation facing Michel Tetrault, also of Ste-Adele.
"It came like a white cloud," he recalled. He could see "nothing for about 30 seconds."
Then he tried to open his door I tried to open the door," discovered immediately that was a bad idea, "and after... 30 seconds everything was down," he said.
The repairs to his home will cost about $100,000, he says.
Hydro-Quebec crews are working overtime across the Laurentians and Lanaudiere, the two hardest-hit regions in the province.
But the utility company says that while many of the repairs can be done quickly, some simply can't.
In Blainville, 80 per cent of outages can be fixed within a day, says Hydro-Quebec spokesperson Caroline Des Rosiers.
The rest will have to wait, she said. As of Monday afternoon, there were 1,400 separate outages responsible for the nearly 200,000 people who were then without power (as of Monday evening, the number had sunk below 175,000).
What is working well is neighbourly support, said Bob Luck, as people help each other clean up.
"That's what we appreciate," he said.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
India's foreign minister reacts to murder charges, claims Canada welcomes criminals
India's Foreign Affairs Minister accused Canada of welcoming criminals from his country in response to the RCMP's recent arrests in a homicide that has roiled tensions between the two countries.
15-year-old boy stabbed in Ottawa on Thursday dies
A 15-year old boy who was critically injured after a stabbing in Nepean on Thursday has died of his injuries, Ottawa's English public school board said Sunday.
Dash cam catches moment suspected drunk driver hits parked car, sends it careening into North Shore flower shop
Police say it’s fortunate no one was injured or killed in a collision at North Vancouver’s Park and Tilford shopping centre Saturday evening that sent one vehicle careening into a flower shop and another into a set of concrete barriers outside a Winners store.
Actor Bernard Hill, of 'Titanic' and 'Lord of the Rings,' has died at 79
Actor Bernard Hill, who delivered a rousing cry before leading his people into battle in 'The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King' and went down with the ship as the captain in 'Titanic,' has died.
'A tiny city:' Pro-Palestinian campus protesters organize for another week
Pro-Palestinian activists have set up tents at universities in Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver and Montreal, following a wave of similar protests at campuses in the United States linked to the Israel-Hamas war.
Lawsuit against Meta asks if Facebook users have right to control their feeds using external tools
Do social media users have the right to control what they see — or don't see — on their feeds?
A Holocaust survivor will mark that history differently after the horrors of Oct. 7
This year's Holocaust Remembrance Day, which begins on Sunday evening in Israel, carries a heavier weight than usual for many Jews around the world.
Princess Anne lays wreath at Battle of Atlantic ceremony; honours late Queen
Princess Anne saluted Canadian veterans and current forces members and honoured her late mother during separate ceremonies Sunday in Victoria as she wrapped up a three-day British Columbia West Coast royal visit.
El Nino weakening doesn't mean cooler temperatures this summer, forecasters say
As Canadians brace themselves for summer temperatures, forecasters say a weakening El Nino cycle doesn’t mean relief from the heat.