Ottawa city officials are urging residents to stay patient as crews work to restore power to tens of thousands of homes following the violent storms that swept through Saturday afternoon.
Some of Ottawa’s worst hit areas include Hunt Club, Merivale, Navan and Stittsville.
With power likely out in some places for days, the city has opened nine emergency centres. They cover a wide swath of the city, offering amenities like washrooms, charging stations and showers.
More than 350,000 customers in the region were initially left without power Saturday, and as of Sunday afternoon, that was still above 300,000. Hydro Ottawa reported early Monday that more than 140,000 customers were still without power.
“The challenge … is we receive our power from Hydro One, and if it’s not coming through the system because of downed lines, it will obviously have an impact on our customers,” Mayor Jim Watson said.
“So we’re trying to get as many of our customers back as possible.”
More than 350,000 customers in the region were initially left without power Saturday, and as of Sunday afternoon, that was still above 300,000. Hydro Ottawa reported early Monday that more than 140,000 customers were still without power.
“The challenge … is we receive our power from Hydro One, and if it’s not coming through the system because of downed lines, it will obviously have an impact on our customers,” Mayor Jim Watson said.
“So we’re trying to get as many of our customers back as possible.”
With so many traffic lights out, and with toppled trees cluttering the roadways, Ottawa police have asked residents to avoid driving around the city.
Power was also out at the Robert O. Pickard Environmental Centre, which treats hundreds of millions of litres of wastewater each day. It has backup generators, but according to a city manager, water quality leaving the plant was still affected.
Officials said around 5 p.m. that its power had been restored.
In a statement, Hydro Ottawa said the overall situation was “complex” and that crews had worked overnight — and would continue to do so — to get everyone’s power back on.
“At this time, we believe this will be a multi-day restoration effort. Power will be restored initially to large scale outages, followed by smaller ones,” the power utility said.
Help is coming from other provinces, according to Joseph Muglia, Hydro Ottawa’s director of system operations and grid automation.
News Credit CBC NEWS
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ottawa-wind-storm-power-outage-cleanup-1.6462614