Storm Debby: Tens of thousands of Hydro-Quebec customers still without power

Cars drive slowly through flooded streets in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue on the Island of Montreal after heavy rains hit the area on Friday, August 9, 2024. (Peter McCabe, The Canadian Press)

Tens of thousands of Hydro-Quebec customers were still affected by power outages on Saturday morning as a result of the massive storm caused by the remnants of tropical storm Debby.

At the height of the storm last night, 500,000 customers were left to reconnect to the grid, according to Hydro-Quebec.

The peak was due to flooding in three Hydro-Quebec power stations in the South Shore and in Montreal.

"But everything has been cleared this morning, so now the remaining power outages are related to trees or branches that have fallen on the electric grid," said Hydro-Quebec spokesperson Louis-Olivier Batty.

Batty said it has over 400 workers on the ground working to reconnect customers. Hydro-Quebec tweeted this morning that about 100 teams had been working overnight.

"We are hoping to restore the power to a vast majority of customers before the end of the day, but unfortunately, we might have some customers without power tomorrow morning," said Batty.

The government agency said it has over 100 teams on the ground working to reconnect customers after another 100 teams worked overnight.

The power outages on Montreal's South Shore resulted in boil water advisories for several cities and boroughs in the Longueuil area.

Safety tips

Batty recommends cutting the electricity if a customer’s basement is flooded. He added that even if your sump pump is working and plugged into the grid, cutting the power is advised.

However, if the electric panel is located in the basement: “Don’t cut the electricity yourself,” he said.

Batty said customers can call 1-800-790-2424 for questions or if customers need to cut the power and the electric panel is in a flooded basement.