Over 180,000 Montreal Hydro-Québec Customers Have Lost Power After The Freezing Rain

Yes, we all heard that thunder this afternoon, but worse still, many Montrealers (including some of MTL Blog's own intrepid crew) have been left without power thanks to the onslaught of freezing rain drenching — and icing — the city. According to the latest Hydro-Québec numbers at the time of publication, just over 186,000 Montreal customers were sitting in darkened homes Wednesday afternoon, and it's directly because of the awful rain.

Across the province, more than 421,000 customers were experiencing power outages as of 3:30 p.m., with around 44% of those outages located in Montreal. A good chunk of the remaining outages, about 124,000, was in Montérégie. That's about 17% of Hydro-Quebec's customers in the region.

"Precipitation and the accumulation of freezing rain in several regions are causing numerous power outages, mainly in the Greater Montreal area, the Outaouais, Montérégie and the Laurentians," the company wrote in a notice posted on its website. "The outages are mainly caused by falling branches or trees that give way under the weight of the ice."

In a tweet earlier on April 5, Hydro-Québec recommended that folks prepare for the possibility of an outage using their guidelines.

One of the primary ways to prepare for outages, Hydro-Quebec says, is gathering supplies to form an emergency kit. Their suggestions for what to include are a battery-operated flashlight (with spare batteries), a battery-operated radio and/or a portable charger, non-perishable food and first aid supplies.

This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.