Four massive steel transmission towers, crushed near Ottawa, hint at the scale of the challenge crews face after Saturday’s powerful storm as they work to restore power to tens of thousands of residents.
These Hydro One towers, or what’s left of them, are also proof of how fierce the winds that shook the region were – and how vulnerable the city’s electricity grid can be.
They are evidence of meteorological phenomena that Bryce Conrad, CEO of Hydro Ottawa, said was worse than the 1998 ice storm and tornado that tore the area apart in 2018.
“These [towers] “They are designed to withstand ice and strong winds and collapse like toys,” he said.
While the ice storm 24 years ago covered areas of eastern Ontario and tore down towers, it was largely a rural event locally, Conrad explained when asked why Saturday’s storm was worse.
The six tornadoes that swept through the Ottawa-Gatineau region four years ago destroyed the Merivale transmission station and damaged some poles, leaving Barrhaven and other places in the dark. But Conrad said they know it’s just a matter of returning power from the provincial grid to light up the community again.
This storm was different.
“There is not a single square inch of our service area that has not been adversely affected by this event,” Conrad said.
“It’s as bad as it gets.”
Approximately 110,000 people are still waiting for the lights to come on, officials told a news conference Monday afternoon.
All available employees and contractors work around the clock, said Joseph Muglia, director of system operations and network automation for Hydro Ottawa. Reinforcements were called in from Kingston, Ont., The Greater Toronto area and New Brunswick.
A vehicle is seen among fallen power lines and poles after a major storm on Merivale Road in Ottawa on Saturday. (Justin Tang / Canadian Press)
They are focused on restoring power to critical facilities such as hospitals and wastewater treatment plants before turning to major neighborhoods where they could receive “the biggest blow to our money,” Mulia said on Sunday.
Both the local and provincial networks have suffered significant damage, he added.
“This storm, although short, was very destructive.
Hundreds of broken poles
Hydro Ottawa provided estimates ranging from 160 to 200 broken ladders, listing downed trees and damaged infrastructure among other barriers to power recovery.
Conrad guessed that it might take another two to four days around the clock, but even then there would be pockets of homes so damaged that crews would not risk re-energizing them.
Hydro One is fighting its own damage. Spokesman Titian Bachega Rosa said there were “amazing” 800 broken ladders in Ontario and they continue to count.
One of many massive pic.twitter.com/0dsez9pEFb
– @JimWatsonOttawa
The huge transmission towers are now bent as if “made of paper” and are part of the system that supplies energy to Ottawa, she said before being distributed by the local grid.
“It’s like the superhighway, like your 400 series,” Bachega Rosa explained. “It moves energy from where it was generated to where it needs to go.”
Although they are not the only reason the power went out, they are an important part of the puzzle, she said.
Baccega Rosa compares the repair to Lego brick construction, explaining that removing a power outage is not as simple as moving a truck to your house.
Instead, it should be done sequentially, or the crews will work back.
“You have to lay the foundations,” she said. “We have to fix the big lines first to fix the minor lines and then right up to the one you see on your street.”
Water infrastructure and downed trees sit on a street in Carlton Place, Ont., On Monday. Hydro One, which covers much of eastern Ontario outside Ottawa, says it also faces significant challenges in bringing people back. (Sean Kilpatrick / Canadian Press)
There is no right answer
According to Conrad, as more trees are removed in Ottawa, workers are finding more and more damage.
Even when they are confident that the power line is ready for power, they are “overly cautious” and will re-patrol the area instead of risking death or a fire, he said.
The scale of the damage has led some to suggest that there must be a better way to do things, but Conrad said the buried lines at Trend-Arlington in Ottawa were also destroyed by the 2018 tornado.
And while it’s easy to catch wooden poles, a healthier and more expensive alternative on Hawthorne Avenue also fell during Saturday’s storm, he said.
Hydro Ottawa teams are working to restore power in the Carlington neighborhood of Ottawa on Sunday after a powerful storm destroyed the region the day before. (Christy Nees / CBC)
“We don’t really know what the hell hit us,” Conrad said. “Whatever it was, he took down 65-foot-tall composite poles.”
Asked what might prevent future mass outages in the future, he sighed.
“I would like to tell you that I have a perfect plan so that it never happens again,” Conrad said. “I wish I had the right answer. I wouldn’t have to work.
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