MONTREAL—The ice storm that plunged hundreds of thousands of Hydro-Quebec customers into darkness in April cost the provincial utility about $14 million, according to data provided to The Canadian Press. In comparison, Hydro-Quebec said previously that tornadoes that swept the Gatineau area in September prompted about $8.4 million in damage-related expenditures. At the height of the outages, which occurred from April 8-12, some 316,000 residential customers in Montreal, Laval, the Laurentians and the Lanaudiere region lost power. During peak periods, Hydro-Quebec had up to 1,000 employees in the field, alongside teams from Hydro-Sherbrooke and Vermont’s Green Mountain Power. Workers — mainly line labourers — put in nearly 45,500 hours of overtime at a cost of about $3.6 million.

Source: thestar June 15, 2019 17:26 UTC