Ottawa city officials are urging residents to be patient as crews work to restore power to tens of thousands of homes after severe storms erupted on Saturday afternoon.
Some of the hardest hit areas in Ottawa include Hunt Club, Merivale, Navan and Stittsville.
As electricity has probably been cut off in some places for days, the city has opened nine emergency centers.
They cover a large part of the city, offering amenities such as toilets, charging stations and showers.
Attention: More emergency centers are already open for
For more information visit:
– @ottawacity
More than 350,000 customers in the region were initially without electricity on Saturday, and by Sunday afternoon it was still over 300,000. Hydro Ottawa said more than 177,500 customers were still without electricity.
“The challenge is that we get our energy from Hydro One, and if it doesn’t go through the system due to broken lines, it will obviously affect our customers,” said Mayor Jim Watson.
“So we try to bring back as many of our customers as possible.”
Hydro Ottawa map of interruptions
“Please follow the rules”
Although residents are understandably “disappointed” by the interruptions, Watson urged residents to remain patient, noting during a press conference Sunday afternoon that he was disappointed with some of the comments he read on social media.
“[The crews] work from the bottom of our hearts to make sure we get our power back as soon as possible. But with more than 170,000 customers without electricity, not everything can be done in about an hour, “he said.
The storm has also disrupted hundreds of road signals, according to the city, and Watson is urging drivers to treat them as four-way stops.
“We ask you to stay positive, despite the challenges. Please be patient. “Please follow the rules and instructions given to you by first aid staff,” Watson said.
There will be no need to declare a state of emergency, he added, as this will really give the city the power to circumvent the typical process of buying equipment or supplies – something that is not needed at the moment.
People charge their electronic devices at the St. Laurent in Ottawa on Sunday afternoon. (Christy Nees / CBC)
With so many traffic lights off and trees felled on the roads, Ottawa police have asked residents to avoid driving around the city.
Electricity was also cut off at the Robert O. Picard Environmental Center, which treats hundreds of millions of gallons of wastewater every day. There are backup generators, but according to the city manager, the quality of the water leaving the plant is still affected.
Authorities said at around 5pm that his electricity had been restored.
In a statement, Hydro Ottawa said the overall situation was “complicated” and that the crews had worked overnight – and will continue to do so – to restore power to all.
Help is coming from other provinces, according to Hydro Ottawa’s director of system operations and network automation, Joseph Mulia.
“We currently believe that this will be a multi-day recovery effort. Initially, the power supply will be restored with major outages, followed by smaller ones,” the energy company said.
The teams worked at night and will continue to do so in the coming days.
Recovery is expected to last a few days & will be prioritized, trying to do the best for the largest number of customers: large interruptions are restored first, followed by smaller ones pic.twitter.com/rjliphFwNv
– @hydroottawa
Ottawa International Airport is backed up, although Hydro Ottawa expects it to be fully connected to the grid by Sunday night.
Travelers who need to get there need to build extra time, as some roads are blocked by fallen trees.
At 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, more than 75,000 Hydro-Québec customers were still in the dark in Outaouais, as well as approximately 80,000 Hydro One customers in eastern Ontario.
A cabin overturned at Cedar Shade Camp in Alfred, Ont., On Sunday. Outside Ottawa, tens of thousands of people are still without electricity. (Frederick Pepin / Radio Canada)
More details about the dead, the wounded
Several people died in or after the storm, including a 59-year-old man who died after a tree fell on him at a Canadian golf and country club near Stitsville.
A 51-year-old woman died Saturday when her boat capsized on the Ottawa River in the Masson-Angers sector of Gatineau, Quebec, while a 44-year-old man was hit and killed by a falling tree at a villa near Calaboga, Ont.
Ontario Provincial Police say 80-year-old Gail Green of Ferguson Falls, Ontario, died Sunday afternoon when she was hit by a falling tree branch near Lanark, Ontario.
Saturday’s storm was just the latest in a series of natural disasters that have affected the Ottawa region in recent years, including the 2017 and 2019 floods and – perhaps most importantly – the devastating 2018 tornado.
The silver advantage of these earlier weather events is that they have taught important lessons about what to do when natural disasters occur, said Ottawa City Manager Steve Canelakos.
Community members gather to view a tree destroyed during a major storm in Ottawa on Saturday, May 21, 2022 (Justin Tang / The Canadian Press)
“It is rapidly moving from physical debris, property damage to human health, human well-being,” Canelakos said.
“And what we’ve done this time is we’ve moved very fast to take care of the health needs – the human needs – of the community.”
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