Montreal-area residents continue to grapple with the aftermath of high winds and power outages – Montreal | The Canadian News

Some Montreal-area residents remain without power after a windstorm hit the province over the weekend.

Power was restored to most of the more than 400,000 customers across the province who lost power, but many like Jessica Lazic in St-Lazarre, west of Montreal, only managed to restore power around 3pm Monday. .

“Well, on Saturday night we lost power,” he told Global News hours before power returned. “We all slept in our rooms. We woke up and it was very cold. “

She said the family of five relied on their fireplace for warmth.

It was a challenge for the six-month-old twins and a 20-month-old daughter, Lazic said, noting that they couldn’t shower and she couldn’t do laundry.

“Things are dirty,” he said. “It’s tough at six months old. They get dirty, they get dirty and things pile up.

At night, they sleep in front of the fireplace.

“My husband goes to work during the day, but he stays up at night, making sure the fire continues and that I get some rest since I’m with the kids all day,” she said.

To make sure food doesn’t go to waste, they kept perishable items in the garage where it’s cold.

Walking through some city streets, the sound of generators fill the air, a testament to the number of other families still without electricity.

“In St-Lazarre at the moment we have around 370 customers who do not have electricity,” explained Hydro Quebec spokeswoman Caroline Des Rosiers. “They are affected by about nine outages.”

That was Monday afternoon. Across the province at the time, he said, about 30,000 customers were still without power.

“We have a little over 1,000 people working,” he said.

According to Des Rosiers, while they believe 95 percent of customers will have power restored by Tuesday, the utility cannot always estimate when power will be restored until crews go to the site to see the nature of the problem.

“Sometimes it is more complicated, it is more difficult for our teams to access,” he said.

For people who use alternative ways to heat their homes, like generators, she reminds them to use them outdoors.

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