(Kristy Nease/CBC) No right answerĪccording to Conrad, as more downed trees are removed in Ottawa, workers are uncovering more and more damage.Įven when they're confident the feeder line is ready to be energized, they're being "uber-cautious" and will re-patrol the area rather than risk someone dying or sparking a fire, he said. Hydro Ottawa crews work to restore power in Ottawa's Carlington neighbourhood on Sunday, after a powerful storm tore through the region the day before. "We need to repair the big lines first, in order to repair the secondary lines and then right down to the one you see on your street." "You need to lay the foundation," she said. Instead, it needs to be done in sequence or crews will be working backwards. While they're not the only reason the power is out, they are an important piece of the puzzle, she said.īaccega Rosa compared the repairs to building with Lego bricks, explaining that fixing a power outage isn't as simple as getting a hydro truck to your house. "It is moving energy from where it's generated to where it needs to go." "It's like the superhighway, it's like your 400-series," Baccega Rosa explained. working in collaboration with Hydro One to get power back /0dsez9pEFb- huge transmission towers now bent as if they're "made out of paper" were part of the system that delivers power to Ottawa, she said, before being distributed by the local grid. One of the many massive towers snapped in half near Hunt Club at 417. Spokesperson Tiziana Baccega Rosa said Tuesday there are about 1,400 broken poles across Ontario. Hydro One is grappling with damage of its own.
Hydro Ottawa has provided estimates ranging from 160 to 200 broken poles, listing downed trees and damaged infrastructure among other obstacles to getting the power back on.Ĭonrad suggested it could take two to four more days of around-the-clock work, but even then there will be pockets of homes so damaged that crews won't risk re-energizing them.
"This storm, however brief, was very destructive." Hundreds of broken poles
They've been focused on restoring power to critical institutions such as hospitals and the water treatment plant, before pivoting to large neighbourhoods where they can get "the biggest bang for our buck," Muglia said on Sunday.īoth the local and provincial grid have sustained extensive damage, he added. Reinforcements have been called in from Kingston, Ont., the Toronto area and New Brunswick. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)Īll available employees and contractors have been working around the clock, said Joseph Muglia, the director of system operations and grid automation for Hydro Ottawa. Hydro One, which covers much of eastern Ontario outside Ottawa, says it too is dealing with significant challenges getting people's power back on. Hydro infrastructure and downed trees sit on a street in Carleton Place, Ont., on Monday.