Power outages hit Dorval and Pointe-Claire during bitter cold

Residents in Dorval and portions of Pointe-Claire are without power on Friday during a bitterly cold day.

According to Hydro-Quebec,  the outages began at 7 a.m., with 3,000 customers impacted. Hydro-Québec said the problem was caused by equipment failure.

“A switch tripped,” said Hydro-Québec spokesperson Amélie Vaillancourt Chartrand. “It trips when there are voltage problems in order to protect the network. The issue originated from 20 Avenue de la Baie de Valois.”

Some residents have been without power for more than 12 hours.

As of 9 p.m., when the wind chill made it feel like -17, there were more than 10 outages in the Dorval area, affecting more than 1,300 customers, according to Hydro-Quebec. Outages in Pointe-Claire also affected hundreds of households.

In social media post, Dorval Mayor Marc Doret said the city had opened a warming shelter at the Sarto-Desnoyers community centre, where residents could warm up and charge their devices if needed during regular hours.

“We apologize for the inconvenience, especially in this cold weather. Our teams are on the ground and working hard to restore service,” Vaillancourt Chartrand added.

Hydro-Québec said it expected service to be restored to the remaining households by 4 p.m. However, as of 9 p.m., more than 2,000 customers on the Island of Montreal were still in the dark.