Municipalities are working hard to mobilize all of their resources to help citizens affected by severe storms.
This white car was crushed by a tree in Ottawa on Saturday night.
Photo: Radio Canada / Rosalie Sinclair
On the Ottawa side, the city has opened several emergency centers to offer access to bathrooms, air conditioning, electricity to charge electronic devices, among other things. The Carleton Heights Community Center and Cardelrec Recreation Complex (Goulbourn) have been open since Sunday at 10 a.m.
The Plant Recreation Center at 930 Somerset Street West is also available to residents affected by the thunderstorms. The city does not rule out opening more centers if the situation requires it.
During Sunday, the city announced the opening of additional locations on the territory. The François-Dupuis Recreation Center at 2263 Portobello Boulevard, the Centennial Howard-Darwin Arena at 1765 Merivale Street, and the Hunt Club-Riverside Park Community Center at 3320 Paul Anka Drive are available to residents.
It is also possible for people affected by thunderstorms to visit the Richmond Arena at 6095 Perth Street, the JA Dulude Arena at 941 Clyde Avenue, or the Bernard-Grandmaître Arena at 309 McArthur Avenue in the Vanier Sector.
Mayor Jim Watson visited the Cardelrec complex in Stittsville on Sunday. In an interview with Radio-Canada, he said he understands the desperation of his fellow citizens, who are eager for power to be restored. Nevertheless, they still have to be patient.
“It will take two to three days to restore power to everyone. »
— A quote from Jim Watson, Mayor of Ottawa
For now, the priority is to remove trees from the streets where there are emergency services for ambulances, police and firefighters, he explained, noting that there are currently no plans to declare a state of emergency.
Mayor Jim Watson traveled to Stittsville on Sunday morning to meet with residents affected by the storms.
Photo: Radio Canada / Rosalie Sinclair
Due to the ongoing power outages, the social network in Ottawa’s West End is struggling. Know our teams are working to restore power, but the damage is severe, Hydro Ottawa said on its Twitter account.
As of 5 p.m., Hydro Ottawa was reporting 558 outages and more than 170,000 customers still without power.
Between 3pm Saturday and 11am Sunday, the Ottawa Police Service (OPS) was deployed to respond to around 2,400 calls. Police said they received three times their usual number of emergency calls on Saturday.
The 041 secondary school under construction in Gatineau was not spared Saturday’s storm.
Photo: Radio Canada / Charles Lalande
On Gatineau’s side, Mayor France Bélisle has not granted an interview as she is staying at her chalet, according to her press secretary. However, she has spoken out via social media. She said all municipal facilities work for essential public services.
Some leisure facilities may be closed today due to weather conditions [météorologiques], She said. At the same time, the city of Gatineau announced the closure of five sports centers in the area.
France Bélisle also informed Gatineau residents that 311’s technical difficulties are now a thing of the past.
In Outaouais, nearly 74,957 Hydro-Québec customers were still without power as of 5 p.m. Sunday.
As of Saturday, at the height of the storm, nearly 120,000 citizens were without power in their homes, accounting for half of the 224,649 customers in the Outaouais region.
Watch out for food poisoning
While power outages last several hours in some areas, some foods in fridges and freezers could lose their freshness and pose a risk of food poisoning if eaten. Food sorting is essential for any outage of more than six hours, the Outaouais Integrated Health and Social Services CISSS center warned on Sunday.
We want people to pay attention to food. […] There are certain foods like dairy, meat and fish that need to be kept at an appropriate temperature and that can pose a health risk if eaten anyway, said Dr. Camille Paquette, Public Health Physician at the CISSS Outaouais Integrated Health and Social Service Center.
Record winds for the region
According to Environment Canada, gusts reached 120 km/h at Ottawa International Airport on Saturday. The last time Ottawa had winds of this magnitude was in 1962.
In the night from Saturday to Sunday, the city of Ottawa informed the population that it would intervene more intensively after the strong storm.
There have been multiple reports of power outages, property damage and downed trees, particularly in the Navan, Stittsville, Merivale and Hunt Club areas, according to a news release sent at 1:35 a.m.
The city has ensured that it mobilizes all the necessary resources, ie police, fire, paramedics and other city services.
The motorist’s journey ended when a power pole fell on his car in Ottawa on Saturday.
Photo: The Canadian Press/Justin Tang
On Gatineau’s side, PR officers at the SPVG Service de Police de la Ville de Gatineau mentioned that they had received many calls in the Gatineau, Masson-Angers and Buckingham sectors, specifically about stopped traffic lights, broken poles and trees up lying on the streets.
On the other hand, the SPVG Service de Police de la Ville de Gatineau says it has nothing to report in the Hull and Aylmer sectors.
The National Capital Commission (NCC) issued an overnight recommendation Saturday night that there are several fallen or dangerous trees in Gatineau Park. The National Capital NCCCommission has therefore asked people to avoid the area while crews clean up.
The promenades of the south sector are closed until further notice for cleaning work.
Also in Outaouais, the Chelsea community is inviting storm-affected residents to go to the Meredith Center at 23 Cecil Road for refills, showers and charging. On Sunday the center is open until 8:30 p.m.
Four deaths linked that Storm in that region
The storm killed eight people in total, seven in Ontario and one in Quebec.
In the federal capital region, the police confirmed the deaths of three people on Saturday and a fourth on Sunday.
In Gatineau, a 51-year-old woman was killed on the Ottawa River in the Masson-Angers sector after her boat capsized. His death was confirmed in the evening by the SPVG Service de Police de la Ville de Gatineau. Another person on the boat was injured.
In Ottawa, a 59-year-old man died after being struck by a falling tree at the Canadian Golf and Country Club.
A 44-year-old man also died after being hit by a tree, this time in Renfrew County.
An 80-year-old woman, Gail Greene, died Sunday afternoon after being struck by a tree near the town of Lanark.
Four other people were killed by falling trees in Ontario on Saturday during the storm: a 64-year-old woman from Cornwall who died in Peterborough, a woman in her 60s in Brampton, a 74-year-old woman in Port Hope and one person in the Waterloo region
Two women assess the damage after the storm.
Photo: The Canadian Press/Justin Tang
State of emergency in eastern Ontario
In eastern Ontario, the city of Clarence-Rockland made an update at 10 a.m. of the extreme weather event affecting the community and declared a state of emergency at 8 p.m. Saturday.
Clarence Creek Arena is open to citizens in need of housing, water or electricity. The Red Cross is on site. A hotline has been set up: 613-446-6022 and immediately dial 0 to speak to a member of staff.
The video was taken by journalist Denis Babin in Hawkesbury on Saturday afternoon :
In eastern Ontario, Hawkesbury also had to weather the storm and its aftermath.
Photo: Radio Canada / Denis Babin
This text will be updated throughout the day.
With information from Emmanuelle Poisson