According to Hydro One, it could be days, if not weeks, before some customers in rural eastern Ontario could see its power restored.
As Hydro Ottawa reports that only 300 customers still have no electricity on Wednesday evening, some 5,900 Hydro One customers were still offline Thursday morning, according to the company’s website.
The “severity of the damage” from the May 21 storm means some customers in the Bancroft region will be without electricity for several more days, according to the site.
In the Tweed area “a small number of customers may be without electricity for several more weeks”. Both areas are located in Hastings County, west of Kingston, Ont.
Thousands of homes in the area have been without electricity for almost two weeks. CBC keeps track of how long some people have been without electricity.
Hydro One’s estimate doesn’t surprise Carl Stefanski, the mayor of Limerick County in Hastings County.
Hydro teams are trying to gain access to remote areas with several houses only accessible by a single road or water, and there has been extreme damage, he said.
“In some areas it was seen that a felling operation had been carried out. The trees were completely level, lying on the ground. It could be seen a mile away. It was very sad. There was a lot of damage here,” he said. dir Stefanski. .
Stefanski estimates that “it will take more than two months to rebuild this municipality.”
The municipality has also been treated with “damage”, he said, which are non-residents in the area who come to look at the damage.
“Hydro has to dismantle what they’re doing, throw themselves on their shoulders, let these cars pass. So we have a lot of people who are upset because we ordered the roads to be closed.”
Hydro One dealing with “extraordinary” damage.
At Bancroft, most of the ongoing disruptions are also on the outskirts of the town, according to Mayor Paul Jenkins. The affected homes are usually seasonal homes, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic there are more homeowners living there year-round.
Over the past few weeks, “it’s amazing to see the number of vehicles and the amount of assistance that has arrived in the area,” Jenkins said.
Hydro teams have flooded the city of Bancroft after the May 21 storm. (City of Bancroft / Facebook)
He said there has been frustration over the restoration projections of the Hydro One, which some owners call unreliable.
“Some of the estimates, you know, can’t be maintained, but overall they’ve done an amazing job of getting it back as soon as possible,” Jenkins said.
“I think it’s just been a matter of, you know, a big, big disruption and a lot of trouble for a lot of people.”
All in one day 8:20 The blackouts continue in the Limerick and Bancroft areas
Mayors Paul Jenkins of Bancroft and Carl Stefanski of Limerick Township share updates on areas still without electricity.
Hydro One declined an interview, but in an emailed statement described the level of damage in that area as “extraordinary” and the crew of the hydro “said it was easier” to count the number of sticks left in foot than those on the ground “while completing the helicopter. patrols.”
In some cases, crews have had to rebuild entire sections of power lines “on difficult terrain,” which includes drilling the rock to install new poles, the company said.
“We understand how difficult it is to run out of electricity and we are doing our best to restore electricity as quickly and safely as possible,” his website explains to its customers.