Hydro-Quebec crews made great progress over the weekend reconnecting customers who lost power during the devastating wind and rain storm that swept across the province on Friday.
At the height of the storm nearly one million customers lost their electricity, but by this morning that number had been reduced to just under 57,000.
The utility says it has nearly 1,400 employees on the ground and reinforcements have arrived from Michigan, Ontario and the Maritimes, with more coming today to help finish the huge job.
On Sunday Quebec Hydro president Eric Martel said he expected everyone to be back on the grid by some time Tuesday, and he thanked Quebecers for their patience in dealing with the difficult situation.
Martel said the remaining outages were mainly in the Monteregie area south of Montreal, the Eastern Townships area, the Laurentians and Lanaudiere region north of Montreal, as well as areas near Trois-Rivieres and Drummondville and the Beauce region south of Quebec City.
The utility said that in some areas, entire segments of the system need to be rebuilt, while in others transformers and poles have to be replaced.
Friday’s storm claimed at least one life – police in Bromont, Que., 85 kilometres east of Montreal, said a 63-year-old man was killed by a falling tree outside his home.