Solutions needed to prevent future widespread power outages, West Island mayors say – Montreal | 24CA News
Six days after an ice storm knocked out energy for not less than 1.1 million Quebecers, Hydro-Québec vans are a welcome sight for a small avenue in Pierrefonds.
On Tuesday afternoon, greater than 10,000 clients remained with out energy throughout Quebec, nearly all of them in Montreal.
“We were warming up water with a fondue heater,” mentioned Giancarlo Tonks, a Pierrefonds resident. “We had a fire pit in our backyard and we’d turn it on and sit by it in the morning.”
A spokesperson for Hydro-Québec says the remaining outages are in areas with mature timber that have been weighed down by ice — like Montreal’s West Island.
The public utility says its aim is to have most restored by the tip of the day Tuesday however admits that is probably not potential.
The remaining outages are complicated and it will possibly’t promise precisely when energy will probably be restored.
Read extra:
Ice storm: Just what number of fallen timber and damaged branches for Montreal to this point
Pierrefonds-Roxboro borough mayor Jim Beis says on the peak of the storm final week, round 80 to 90 per cent of the roughly 28,000 properties within the borough have been affected by the ability outage.
One of the most important causes, he says, is due to the variety of timber in the neighborhood.
“We have the second largest canopy of trees in Montreal,” mentioned Beis. “And we also know and Hydro knows this, that 40 per cent, if not more, of the trees that are bordering Hydro lines are the ones that caused a lot of these issues.”
Read extra:
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Beis and neighbouring Dollard-des-Ormeaux mayor Alex Bottausci say there must be an even bigger dialogue between the general public utility and municipalities about the right way to reduce results on the community throughout climate occasions shifting ahead.
“Is it a question of burying all the lines? Maybe that’s a part solution, it may not be the full solution,” mentioned Bottausci. “But I think we need to have these conversations on how to better manage the environment and the greenery that surrounds us that we love so much in the West Island.”
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