Hydro Ottawa says current outages significantly worse than ice storm, tornadoes
Roughly 110,000 Hydro Ottawa customers still without power Monday afternoon
Hydro Ottawa says damage from Saturday's storm is "simply beyond comprehension" as it brings in reinforcements to help with repairs.
More than 200,000 people in the wider region are still without power, and Hydro Ottawa says no area of the city was unaffected.
- Tens of thousands remain without power in Ottawa region after destructive storm
- Power could take days to fully restore post-storm
"This event is significantly worse than both the ice storm of 1998 and the tornadoes of 2018. This level of damage to our distribution system is simply beyond comprehension," said Hydro Ottawa in a letter sent to the mayor on Sunday.
Letter just received from Hydro Ottawa who call the level of damage to the system beyond comprehension. Let’s keep helping eachother and huge thank you to <a href="https://twitter.com/hydroottawa?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@hydroottawa</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Ottawa?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Ottawa</a> public works and crews for these efforts to restore safety and power. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/OttawaOutage?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#OttawaOutage</a> <a href="https://t.co/fSILfoofNd">pic.twitter.com/fSILfoofNd</a>
—@ShawnMenard1Hydro Ottawa map of outages
Joseph Muglia, the director of system operations and grid automation for Hydro Ottawa, told CBC's Ottawa Morning new contractors are being brought on board Tuesday, and crews from Kingston, Ont., the Greater Toronto Area and New Brunswick are coming to help.
"The outages that we're seeing now are Hydro Ottawa outages," he said. "My estimation would be into sort of later this week by the time some of those areas are back."
Hydro Ottawa is forecasting a two to four day outage, according to CEO Bryce Conrad, who said during an update Monday afternoon that the hope is to have the vast majority of service restored by the "latter part of the week."
Prioritizing restoring power to vulnerable residents
Muglia said Hydro Ottawa has made "massive strides" and while "the customer count is high, it's come significantly from where it was."
At a Monday afternoon press conference, Muglia said that roughly 110,000 Hydro Ottawa customers remained without power. Crews were still dealing with 163 broken power poles, he added.
Mayor Jim Watson said the city is trying to prioritize restoring power to vulnerable residents.
"Those people who are economically challenged, live in affordable housing, who don't have the luxury of going out and getting all new groceries, because obviously their groceries have gone to waste because of the lack of power," he said.
He said while the 2018 tornado that struck Ottawa was confined to a specific area, the storm system on Saturday "went basically all across the city, in rural Ottawa, suburban Ottawa, downtown Ottawa."
As many traffic lights remain out, he cautioned drivers to remain safe.
"There were a lot of yahoos that were out there going through the traffic lights, not caring about the others and not doing it in a courteous way," he said. "We don't want another accident to occur because of someone being an idiot or foolish and stretch our emergency resources even thinner."
Cleanup relief
With trees still littering roads, parks and private property, city officials said Monday afternoon the cleanup work won't be done any time soon.
They announced some steps to ease residents' pain, however, including waiving tipping fees at the Trail Road landfill for storm-related damage and holding a green bin "collection blitz" in hard-hit neighbourhoods where food was spoiling.
"It's going to take weeks before the cleanup is finished," said Alain Gonthier, the city's general manager of public works. "But all hands are on deck in terms of trying to get this finished as soon as possible."
Death toll continues to rise
The death toll related to the powerful storm that swept Ontario and Quebec on Saturday is now at 10.
At least nine people in Ontario and one in Quebec have died either as a direct result of the storm or due to its aftermath, with most victims being killed by falling trees.
The latest victim was confirmed Monday by Peterborough Police, who say a 61-year-old Lakefield, Ont., man died from injuries suffered during the storm.
Police reports on the various deaths suggest victims were doing everything from camping to playing golf to taking weekend strolls when they were killed.
