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 Hydro Ottawa workers Evan Houle, left, and Charlie Levac repair a power line yesterday that was damaged by falling branches. (Andre Forget/QMI Agency) |
Hundreds of customers in areas outside Ottawa remain without power Monday morning, but Hydro One says it expects everyone to be powered back up later today. That's a good thing, because the temperature is about to plummet.
Hydro Ottawa reports no significant outages in the city, but several other areas in Eastern Ontario remain in the dark after Saturday's ice storm snapped trees, branches and brought power lines down across the region and into western Quebec.
According to Hydro One, power in most areas of Eastern Ontario has been restored, but in cottage country north of Kaladar, in and around Ompah, more than 3,000 customers are still waiting for crews to make repairs. There are also reports if lingering outages around Perth and Vankleek Hill.
Hydro One estimates power will be back on in most of those affected areas by noon.
That will come just in time to head off what would be a very chilly evening. After several days of fairly moderate temperatures around the freezing mark, the mercury will begin to plunge tonight, hitting a low of -18 C overnight Monday. The forecast for Tuesday is for a high of -14 C.
After Saturday's storm, about 4,000 customers in the city were without power Sunday morning. Less than 1,000 were still in the dark by late Sunday afternoon and the rest of the outages were fixed by last night.
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The situation was worse in the Outaouais, where 9,000 Hydro Quebec customers were still without power at 6:30 p.m. Sunday, including 3,100 customers in Gatineau and 1,500 customers in Cantley. A Hydro Quebec spokeswoman said 95% of those customers would have power by Monday afternoon.
Hydro Ottawa crews had to repair damage across the city, as there were many small outages in different neighbourhoods but no large-scale blackouts.
Westboro was one of the hardest hit areas. Smaller-gauge feeder lines that run through backyards snapped like fishing line. The danger, according to Hydro Ottawa lineman Scott Barkley, is the lines are so thin they’re hard to see when they fall in the snow.
“They’re usually not live, but we like people to treat all fallen lines as though they are live,” he said, adding sometimes these lines can be even more dangerous if they fall on something metallic, such as backyard fences or swing-sets.
Westboro streets were bustling with activity as many residents without power decided to get outside and shovel the slush away from storm sewers and pick up broken branches.
For many, it was a reminder of the 1998 ice storm.
“Yes, it happened that year too, but this isn’t so bad. We’ll survive,” said Westboro senior Ron Burrows.
Laura Durno, like her neighbour Burrows, has a fireplace as a backup heat source.
“The fan doesn’t work, though,” said Durno.
Outside the city, Hydro One crews were kept busy in Vankleek Hill, Winchester and the Arnprior area.
Nearly 1,000 people were without power most of Sunday in Arnprior, but their power was expected to be restored by 9 p.m.
About 6,500 customers in the dark in Vankleek Hill weren’t so lucky. Most of those customers didn't get power back until overnight, as was the case with 1,200 Hydro One customers in Winchester.