More than 20,000 homes still without power in Quebec after Thursday's storms

Although Hydro-Québec reached its target on Friday of restoring power to more than 85 per cent of its customers affected by power cuts following the violent storms that swept across the province on Thursday afternoon, more than 20,000 homes were still without electricity on Saturday morning.

Although Hydro-Québec reached its target on Friday of restoring power to more than 85 per cent of its customers affected by power cuts following the violent storms that swept across the province on Thursday afternoon, more than 20,000 homes were still without electricity on Saturday morning.

Shortly after 5 a.m. on Saturday, the exact number of customers plunged into darkness stood at 20,466, a clear improvement on the 217,000 customers affected at the same time on Friday morning.

At the height of the crisis on Thursday evening, 392,000 customers were affected by blackouts.

On Friday, the state-owned company had set itself the target of reconnecting 85 per cent of its affected customers by the end of the day. On Twitter, however, it acknowledged that the situation is not easy for the remaining households for whom the blackout continues.

"As you can see, the storm has caused significant damage to vegetation, including overturned trucks and uprooted trees. The work will continue over the weekend and could continue until the beginning of the week for certain more complex cases or in isolated areas," Hydro-Québec pointed out.

The utility noted in passing on Friday that only five outages still in progress lasted more than 24 hours.

"We are counting on a strike force of more than 800 people in the field, including fitters, pruners and planting teams. Teams are travelling between regions to speed up recovery," the company added.