Another 2 to 3 days to reconnect Ottawa, but progress being made: Hydro Ottawa
City officials in Ottawa say it could be another two to three days to restore power, but Hydro Ottawa is assuring the community that progress is being made.
Hydro Ottawa reported more than 60,000 still without power as of 9 a.m. Wednesday. Crews have restored power to 120,000 customers since Saturday night.
"Restoration efforts will continue 24/7 until all residents are reconnected," Hydro Ottawa's Joseph Muglia said in a media conference Tuesday afternoon.
Muglia once again stressed that the amount of damage done to Ottawa's power grid was worse than the 1998 ice storm or the 2018 tornadoes.
"By comparison, 80 hydro poles needed replacing after the tornadoes in 2018. For this event, we are almost three times that amount in damage to poles. This level of infrastructure replacement would commonly require about six months worth of time to complete. We're performing it within a matter of days," he said.
Hydro Ottawa has removed its outage map temporarily, saying it doesn't reflect the current situation and the full extent of crews' progress "due to the number of individual and complex overlapping outages."
"Given the number of separate events and the extent of damage to electrical equipment, this continues to be a multi-day restoration effort," Hydro Ottawa said in a news release. "After critical institutions and emergency services, power restoration work is prioritized to outages affecting large neighbourhoods with the largest number of customers, followed by smaller areas."
Muglia said as soon as Hydro Ottawa is in a position to begin offering estimated restoration times to individual neighbourhoods, it would do so.
Hydro crews from New Brunswick are on the ground helping Ottawa workers. Workers from Toronto and Kingston have also been called in.
As of 5:30 p.m., Hydro One was reporting nearly 49,000 customers in eastern Ontario who were still without power. Hydro Quebec said there were still 21,000 customers in the Outaouais region to be connected.
TRANSPORTATION
Approximately 40 roads are still impassable due to downed trees and hydro lines, Public Works General Manager Alain Gonthier told reporters Tuesday afternoon. Residents are being asked to stay off the roads if they can.
OC Transpo is reporting some detoured buses, but the transit system is largely intact.
ASSISTANCE FOR RESIDENTS
Respite centres are open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily for people who need electricity, water, food and shelter. You can see a full list here. There are also disposal bins set up at several locations for spoiled food, and the city is conducting a green bin blitz to collect food waste. Many city services were closed on Tuesday.
SCHOOLS
English public and Catholic schools in Ottawa will reopen Wednesday if they have power. There are more than 60 schools in the city that still don't have power and they will remain closed. In addition, two schools were damaged by the storm and will be closed for an extended period of time. French boards plan to open schools that have power, as well.
HYDRO ONE
Three large towers along Highway 417 were downed during Saturday's storm. The westbound exit to Hunt Club Road is closed and will remain so for the next few days. Hydro One, which supplies the electricity for Ottawa and many parts of Ontario, is working to rebuild the nearly 50-metre tall hydro lines which carry power from Cornwall and across to the Ottawa Valley.
“This is the major extend of our damage on the transmission system. The bulk of the damage is on our distribution system, as it has been for other utilities in the province. So, very, very significant effort to restore power at this point,” says Jason Fitzsimmons, chief corporate affairs and customer care officer for Hydro One. “Importantly, the supply to Ottawa is not dependant on this line right now, but it is one of 14 major lines to feed the city of Ottawa.”
At least nine people across Ontario were killed in the destructive storm on Saturday, including three in the Ottawa area.
Mayor Jim Watson said Tuesday morning the cost of the cleanup will run into the millions of dollars, including the cost of bringing in hundreds of employees in on a long weekend, reimbursing other jurisdictions for their resources and running the respite centres.
"We don't have an estimate at this point," he told CTV Morning Live on Tuesday. "But we're not in the business of penny-pinching during an emergency like this. We have to make sure that we get as many resources as quickly as possible to help people, because their lives have been turned upside-down."
A city council meeting scheduled for Wednesday has been cancelled.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'A beautiful soul': Funeral held for baby boy killed in wrong-way crash on Highway 401
A funeral was held on Wednesday for a three-month-old boy who died after being involved in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 in Whitby last week.
'Sophisticated' cyberattacks detected on B.C. government networks, premier says
There has been a "sophisticated" cybersecurity breach detected on B.C. government networks, Premier David Eby confirmed Wednesday evening.
Police handcuff man trying to enter Drake's Toronto mansion
Toronto police say a man was taken into custody outside Drake's Bridle Path mansion Wednesday afternoon after he tried to gain access to the residence.
Biden says he will stop sending bombs and artillery shells to Israel if they launch major invasion of Rafah
U.S. President Joe Biden said for the first time Wednesday he would halt shipments of American weapons to Israel, which he acknowledged have been used to kill civilians in Gaza, if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu orders a major invasion of the city of Rafah.
Canucks claw out 5-4 comeback win over Oilers in Game 1
Dakota Joshua had a goal and two assists and the Vancouver Canucks scored three third-period goals to claw out a 5-4 comeback victory over the Edmonton Oilers in Game 1 of their second-round playoff series Wednesday.
Nijjar murder suspect says he had Canadian study permit in immigration firm's video
One of the Indian nationals accused of murdering British Columbia Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar says in a social media video that he received a Canadian study permit with the help of an Indian immigration consultancy.
Pfizer agrees to settle more than 10K lawsuits over Zantac cancer risk: Bloomberg News
Pfizer has agreed to settle more than 10,000 lawsuits about cancer risks related to the now discontinued heartburn drug Zantac, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the deal.
Quebec premier defends new museum on Quebecois nation after Indigenous criticism
Quebec Premier Francois Legault is defending his comments about a new history museum after he was accused by a prominent First Nations group of trying to erase their history.
U.S. presidential candidate RFK Jr. had a brain worm, has recovered, campaign says
Independent U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had a parasite in his brain more than a decade ago, but has fully recovered, his campaign said, after the New York Times reported about the ailment.