Strong winds cut electricity to hundreds of thousands of Quebec homes

Stormy weather overnight, including strong winds, has cut power to homes in almost every region of the province Tuesday morning. The strong winds are knocking over hydro poles and trees, causing damage throughout the province.

8 p.m.

About 90,000 households remain without power across the province. The region most affected is Montérégie with 25,806 outages, followed by Lanaudière with 21,992 outages and the Laurentides with 11,718.

4 p.m.

At about 4 p.m., approximately 175,000 Hydro-Québec customers were without power, dropping from a high of about 320,000 at noon.

“What makes this event unique is that many regions are affected at the same time,” Pascal Poinlane, a spokesperson for Hydro-Québec, told The Canadian Press.

- With files from The Canadian Press

3 p.m.

Urgences Sante says it didn’t see a rise in calls related to the weather, despite many trees and hydro poles falling, causing damage to cars and property.

Environment Canada says the yellow level wind warning has ended for the Montreal, Laval and Vaudreuil areas, meaning damaging winds are no longer expected.

Power outages have now dropped to fewer than 200,000 addresses across Quebec, for a total of 193,540 clients still in the dark.

12:45 p.m.

A yellow wind warning remains in effect for the Montreal, Laval and Vaudreuil areas, according to Environment Canada.

Southwesterly winds gusting nearly 90 kilometres per hour are expected early Tuesday afternoon, but are expected to gradually decrease.

Images outside the Dorval Museum show ice piling up on the shore of Lac St-Louis.

12:15 p.m.

Hydro-Quebec published a series of social media posts updating Quebecers on the power outage situation.

In the posts, the Crown corporation confirmed that most of the electricity failures were caused by vegetation collapsing onto the distribution network.

It added that there are some significant breaks caused by gusts exceeding 90 km/h, including a series of seven broken poles on a country road in Verchères, in the Montérégie region.

The hardest-hit regions, the public utility company notes, are the Montérégie, Lanaudière, the Laurentians, Montreal, Quebec City, Laval, Outaouais, Mauricie and Chaudières-Appalaches.

Winds are expected to continue throughout the day and could cause further power outages.

Gusts of up to 120 km/h are expected in eastern Quebec, said Hydro-Quebec.

“Given the scale of the event, and therefore the number of locations requiring service, it is unfortunately not possible to provide a specific restoration timeframe for each location,” the corporation said. “However, it is clear that we will not be able to restore service to all affected customers today.”

“The fact that high winds are continuing throughout the day will also slow down our work, as this complicates travel and sometimes prevents us from responding for safety reasons.”

Hydro-Quebec says there are more than 1,500 people on the ground working to restore service, and the company has called on private contractors to join its teams to speed up the restoration process.

At this time, there are 255,394 blackouts remaining.

- Amy Luft

Listen on CJAD 800: When will Quebecers get power back?

Avoid touching power lines

Hydro-Québec is urging residents to avoid touching power lines lying on the ground.

“You must stay at least 10 metres away from power lines because they may still be live,” and you should not attempt to move them, either directly or indirectly—for example, using tree branches.

- The Canadian Press

Wind warning

Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) has also issued a wind warning for the Greater Montreal area.

“Damage to roofs, fences, branches or soft shelters is possible,” the agency notes. “There is a risk of injury due to flying or falling debris.”

Winds are expected to gradually decrease at midday.

School closures

The Lester B. Pearson School Board (LBPSB) confirms some schools are closed due to power outages caused by high winds:

• Soulanges Elementary School
• Pierrefonds Community High School
• West Island Career Centre

The Centre de services scolaire des Affluents notes that some elementary schools are closed due to power outages (parents have been informed by e-mail).

Additionally, these schools are closed:

• École secondaire Jean-Baptiste Meilleur
• École secondaire de l’Odyssée
• Centre de formation professionnelle des Riverains

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11:43 a.m.

Outage numbers in Quebec continue to decrease and are now at 273,561.

Blackouts are as follows for the regions most affected:

10:56 a.m.

Exo confirms that the tracks have been cleared of trees and service is gradually resuming on the Vaudreuil-Hudson line.

“However, delays of up to 190 minutes are expected,” the company states. “The next departure on the [Vaudreuil-Hudson] line will be Train 22, departing at 11:15 a.m. toward Montreal.”

Additionally, power outages are down slightly at 299,898 addresses affected across Quebec.

Numbers remain steadfast in the Montérégie (90,537), Lanaudière (62,618) and Laurentians (36,505).

There are now 15,327 blackouts in Montreal.

Other regions highly affected include:

10:11 a.m.

There are now 318,531 addresses without power.

Outages are predominantly in the Montérégie region (95,652), Lanaudière (64,883) and Laurentians (34,738).

Montreal numbers are now 21,404.

Other regions highly affected by blackouts include:

9:43 a.m.

Several exo trains are at a standstill or heavily delayed after a tree fell onto the tracks near the Lachine garage in the Montreal-West station area.

Some passengers have reported being stuck in their trains for 90 minutes.

Noovo Info has confirmed that a Canadian Pacific (CP) Railway crew is on its way to remove the trees.

Until then, the following trains are affected:

• Vaudreuil-Hudson Line: Trains 12, 14, 16, 18, 112 and 114 to Montreal are stopped with delays ranging from 20 to 70 minutes. Train 11 to Vaudreuil-Dorion is delayed by 85 minutes.
• Delson-Candiac Line: Trains 74 and 76 are seeing delays of 85 and 55 minutes, respectively, while Train 78 has been cancelled.
• Saint-Jérôme Line: Trains 171 and 182 have been cancelled, while delays are reported for trains 178 (20 minutes) and 180 (11 minutes).

9:08 a.m.

The number of outages has jumped again to 306,522.

The Montérégie (85,464) and Lanaudière (63,995) are the two hardest-hit areas, followed by the Laurentians (43,031) and Montreal (30,860).

Other regions greatly affected include:

8:21 a.m.

There are now 274,612 addresses without power, with only the Nord-du-Québec (0) and Côte-Nord (5) seemingly unaffected.

Montreal outages have risen to 30,903.

Blackouts in other highly-affected regions are as follows:

7:52 a.m.

Outage numbers continue to climb and currently stand at 253,667.

The most-affected regions remain the Montérégie (77,874), Lanaudière (50,930) and the Laurentians (38,960).

Blackouts in Montreal are down slightly at 22,300, but Laval numbers are up at 12,058.

Additional outages:

7:21 a.m.

There are now 225,716 addresses without electricity across Quebec.

These are the regions most affected:

6:35 a.m.

The total number of power outages has risen swiftly to 127,694.

The highest jump is in the Montreal area, now at 13,002.

6:22 a.m.

At this time, there are 110,323 power outages across Quebec.

The hardest-hit regions are the Montérégie (36,093), Lanaudière (14,717) and the Laurentians (13,542).

However, most of the regions are affected: