Hydro Ottawa promises 'the bulk of the system' will be restored by Friday night
The president of Hydro Ottawa says "with a little bit of luck" power will be restored in the Merivale Road area on Thursday, bringing power to another 15,000 to 20,000 customers still in the dark following Saturday's storm.
And Bryce Conrad says the goal remains to have "the bulk" of power restored to homes and businesses across the city by the end of Friday.
Ninety-six hours after a devastating storm hit Ottawa with winds up to 190 km/h, approximately 55,000 homes and businesses remain without power. Electricity has been restored to more than 125,000 customers across the city.
Conrad told Newstalk 580 CFRA's "Ottawa Now with Kristy Cameron" that crews are working 16-hour shifts to restore power, with the focus now on the hard hit areas of Merivale Road, Woodroffe Avenue and Greenbank Road.
"(Tuesday), today and tomorrow are big construction days," Conrad said of the focus on repairing downed hydro poles. "All the damage that's been done on Merivale, Woodroffe, Greenbank so we've got crews all out there sort of putting those up."
Dozens of hydro poles litter Merivale, Woodroffe and Greenbank following the storm, leaving several neighbourhoods without power.
Conrad says Hydro Ottawa has a "pretty good handle" on the damage along Merivale Road, and restoring power along those lines will "move the needle in terms of outage numbers."
"We're there, we're getting that work done – we'll be there all day and all night and hopefully, with a bit of luck, we'll be able to energize that line," Conrad said.
"When we pick those lines up and those poles, the expectation is that it's probably another 15-20,000 customers that will likely come back onto the grid. Again, there may be some damage to individual houses along the way."
The city of Ottawa says approximately 75 intersections are still without power, and will "be addressed" as power is restored. Over 120 intersections damaged by the storm have been repaired, according to the city.
Conrad says hydro crews are still finding more damage in pockets across the city as they work to restore electricity.
Hydro crews from Toronto arrived in Ottawa on Wednesday, and London and Cornwall will be sending crews to assist with the restoration efforts on Thursday. There are 250 additional hydro workers working with Hydro Ottawa crews in the field.
Hydro Ottawa calls the Pineglen neighbourhood "ground zero" for the storm, and crews are working to restore power in that area.
Conrad says he is holding the team to the commitment of restoring electricity to the "bulk" of customers over the next two days, but rain in the forecast could slow down the repair work.
"The bulk of the system will be up by Friday – I'm praying the rain holds off and I'm praying that we still have a couple good days of weather," Conrad said.
"When the rain comes, there’s limits on the work they can do. They obviously can’t do live line work, so that will hamper the restoration somewhat," he added. "The good news is there’s lots of constriction work, lots of tree removal that can be done. They’ll work to the safe limits of the operation."
Conrad says there will be a "significant number of homes" that will require additional work to have power restored, and Hydro Ottawa crews are on standby to assist.
"It is effectively houses where we've restored the system and whether there's damage to the meter, damage to the mast, damage to the secondary lines going into their house – those are all things that happen after a normal storm event," Conrad told CTV news Ottawa's Ted Raymond. "Given the violence of this particular storm, I would expect that number could quite frankly be in the thousands."
Hydro One was reporting more than 24,200 customers in eastern Ontario still without power Wednesday afternoon, down from 49,000 Tuesday afternoon. The mayor of Carleton Place said most of the town had power on Wednesday afternoon.
Hydro Quebec said there were still 14,400 customers in the Outaouais region to be connected, down from 21,000 on Tuesday.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
There's actually no such thing as vegetables. Here's why you should eat them anyway
The rumours are true: Vegetables aren't real — that is, in botany, anyway. While the term fruit is recognized botanically as anything that contains a seed or seeds, vegetable is actually a broad umbrella term.
'It looked so legit': Ontario man pays $7,700 for luxury villa found on Booking.com, but the listing was fake
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
The Met Gala was in full bloom with Zendaya, Jennifer Lopez, Mindy Kaling among the standout stars
The Met Gala and its fashionista A-listers on Monday included Jennifer Lopez, Zendaya and a parade of others in a swirl of flora and fauna looks on a green-tinged carpet lined by live foliage.
3 Indian nationals accused of murdering Hardeep Singh Nijjar facing court in B.C.
Three Indian nationals accused of murdering Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar are due to face court Tuesday over the killing that triggered a major diplomatic rift with India.
Israeli forces seize Rafah border crossing in Gaza, putting ceasefire talks on knife's edge
Israeli tanks seized control of Gaza's vital Rafah border crossing on Tuesday as Israel brushed off urgent warnings from close allies and moved into the southern city even as cease-fire negotiations with Hamas remained on a knife's edge.
Canadian cadets rock mullets and place second at U.S. military competition
Sporting mullets, Canadian Armed Forces officer cadets placed second in an annual military skills competition in the U.S.
Highlights from the 2024 Met Gala exhibit: Sleeping Beauty would wake up for these gowns
Sure, she was a royal princess and all. But there’s no way Sleeping Beauty — either before or after her nap — ever had quite the fabulous wardrobe that’s been assembled at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Noelia Voigt resigns as Miss USA, citing her mental health
Noelia Voigt, who was crowned Miss USA in November 2023, has announced she is resigning from her role, saying the decision is in the best interest of her mental health.
Putin begins his fifth term as president, more in control of Russia than ever
Vladimir Putin began his fifth term Tuesday as Russian leader at a glittering Kremlin inauguration, setting out on another six years in office after destroying his political opponents, launching a devastating war in Ukraine and concentrating all power in his hands.