The storm “worse than the ice storm” in Ottawa

The storm that ravaged Quebec and Ontario on Saturday hit the federal capital particularly hard, where the damage is even worse than during the 1998 ice storm.

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As of Monday morning, 110,000 Hydro Ottawa customers were still without power, while only 70,000 had been reconnected to the grid, a limited number explained by the extent of the damage.

“This weather event is significantly more severe than the 1998 ice storm and the 2018 tornadoes,” Hydro Ottawa said in a statement.

“The level of damage to our distribution system is beyond comprehension,” added the organization on its social networks and in a letter sent Saturday evening to elected officials from the City of Ottawa.

At the worst of the storm, some 180,000 homes were plunged into darkness, about half of all Hydro Ottawa customers.

“Given the number of separate events and the extent of damage to electrical structures, it will take several days to repair all faults. After essential establishments and emergency services, priority will be given to outages that affect large neighborhoods where there are large numbers of customers,” the organization continued.

Teams from Greater Toronto, Kingston and even New Brunswick traveled to Ottawa to help the city get back on its feet.

On the side of Hydro One, work progressed more quickly. Monday morning, 196,000 customers were still without power, compared to nearly 600,000 in the wake of the storm.

“Our teams continue to work tirelessly to bring power back to the 196,000 customers still without power. […]. We are doing everything we can to rebuild the network as safely and efficiently as possible.”

According to Hydro One, between two and three days will still be needed to complete the repairs.